Meeting The Enemy
by ShinyShiny9
Summary: What's the most important thing? Think carefully, Sonic, each of you, choose the sine qua non. Because this time, the enemy takes only what's dearest - and you'd better guess right if you want to be ready.
1. Getting Started

**Hi all! This'll be a long one. **

**Now, firstly! Fair warning! This is going to have five or six chapters of complete and utter fluff, and then it's going to get dark. There won't be anything too serious, but there WILL be some mild language, blood violence, and fairly scary themes. Considering what happens in my other T-rated fics, I make no promises.**

**And this is probably a bad idea, but I'm posting a chapter or two before I actually have the whole thing written. Updates will be slow, and I realllllly hope I don't find out later that something's wrong and earlier points need changing.**

**Last but not least, a big thank-you to the friend who drew the cover for this story! Very much appreciated.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Sonic and Co.!**

* * *

It all started so innocently. A time of peace, a hot summer day, a few insignificant quarrels. If you had told any Mobian that the world was about to turn inside-out, they would have looked at you strangely and cautiously edged away. And yet, the disaster was brewing.

If you wanted to find the least innocent area possible, you would have had to visit Eggman's lair. The halls there were empty and echoing, as the doctor was somewhere else . . . which couldn't mean anything good. But as of yet, nothing had happened. So, barring Eggman's inactive main base, what was the second-least-innocent place on Mobius?

Deep underground, in a large, echoing, simultaneously primitive and high-tech cavern.

"Got anything?" asked Shadow, leaning against a stack of processors.

"Yup. I've got a bit of zip, a bit of zilch, and a whole lot of nada," said Rouge disgustedly, shutting down the computer screen she'd been fiddling with. "Either our Chaos Emerald tracker is completely worthless, or the Chaos Emeralds have left the planet."

"Much more likely to be the former," said Shadow. "They haven't even brought electricity to a majority of this place. It would be asking too much to expect a device as advanced as a Chaos Emerald tracker to function properly."

Rouge sighed, half in agreement, half in dismay. Mussing up her ears with one hand, she looked around the hulking cavern that Team Dark had claimed as its own. It wasn't much to be proud of, and yet they were all proud of it still. G.U.N. had been expanding its headquarters recently, and had connected the main building to an underground cavern, with hopes of turning it into a tech room. Team Dark, seeing that HQ proper was getting too hot to hold them, had requested permission to also make the room their own little headquarters.

To a degree, it did keep the feisty threesome out of trouble, but in exchange for the privilege of having their own "room," they had to help with the technological outfitting—it was still primarily a G.U.N. command center, after all. It was a slow and difficult process, rather out of their league, but they stuck to it. They also kept it a secret from the other Mobians; there was a sort of illicit thrill that came from engineering an advanced secret base right under everyone else's noses. Well, maybe the "advanced" part would come later. Perhaps when they could finally stop recharging Omega by patching him through to a toaster oven.

Speaking of which, Omega had just finished recharging. He awoke from his half-slumber, beeping softly.

"Have you succeeded in locating a Chaos Emerald?" he inquired in his robotic twang.

"Dream on," grumbled Rouge.

"I assume that implies a negative."

"Yes, negative," said Rouge, folding her arms. A cunning smirk slowly formed on her muzzle. "But you know, we may not need a tracker. After all, Chaos Emeralds can be found by dint of old-fashioned searching."

"We don't have time for that," said Shadow. "We have a mission coming up this evening. Even with our combined skills, it's very unlikely that we could pluck a Chaos Emerald blindly out of the dark by then."

"Well, maybe just the three of us couldn't," said Rouge. "But what if we got Sonic and the others to . . . shall we say, help out?"

"I assume that implies some sort of blackmail," put in Omega, half-uneasy, half-anticipative.

"Yup." Rouge grinned. "Do you think those guys have any Chaos Emeralds right now?"

"No," replied Shadow. "You know how they are. Always the camaraderie and the sharing. They'd be broadcasting it to every living beast on Mobius, if they had a Chaos Emerald. And when they _do_ find one, they're going to expect it to be public domain."

"Well, we're going to have to convince them otherwise," said Rouge. "First, to help us find a Chaos Emerald. Then, to let us keep it for ourselves. I'm not about to share any of those little beauties, not unless the world depends on it."

"And how do you propose to convince them of all that?"

"We need hostages," grinned Rouge.

"And a whole lot of new enemies on the side?" said Shadow drily. "I don't hold much for the Faker or all those other idiots. But they can be useful, once in a while, and alienating allies one might later need is unwise. Kidnapping one of them for ransom is not going to go over well."

"We don't have to make it a full-scale kidnapping," said Rouge. "I'd agree, that's a little over the top. We need to figure out something very dear to them, but not big enough to get jailed over." Pausing in thought, she suddenly snapped her fingers. "Of course! We can kidnap Cheese!"

"The annoying chao?"

"That's the one!"

"Ohhhh, no," said Shadow firmly. "No chao-napping. We'd have to keep it here until they paid up the Emerald, and I am _not_ going to babysit a spoiled little brat of a chao."

"Chaos are very low-maintenance," assured Rouge. "We can put him in a little cage with a little pillow and toss him a large bagel, and he'll be happy for a day."

"Still no. I can't stand chaos," growled Shadow. "Besides, imagine what a fit Cream would throw. We might as well kidnap _her_, and we'd get in less trouble with the others."

"I support the argument presented by Shadow," intoned Omega. "The bargaining power of a chao would not compensate for the disruption caused by our kidnap attempt."

Rouge put her hands on her hips, glancing from Shadow to Omega slyly.

"Ohhhh, I get it. You guys just don't want to make Cream sad by taking her chao!"

"Causing small and innocent rabbits distress does not sit well with my protocols," grumbled Omega.

Rouge snorted amusedly.

"Aww, you big tough guys just can't stand to make poor, sweet little Cream cry?"

"As if _you_ could," growled Shadow, his muzzle reddening. Omega's gears crunched in annoyed agreement.

"Sheesh, you big softies," laughed Rouge, shaking her head. "Okay, so we won't steal the chao. If you're so smart, come up with something better!"

Shadow shrugged noncommitally.

"Stick with something inanimate," he suggested. "Then we won't have to worry about it dying."

"According to my knowledge banks, subject Sonic the Hedgehog is incapable of running without his shoes," remarked Omega. "The speed at which he runs would cause his primitive organic feet to become burned, if he did not wear specialized footgear."

"So you're suggesting we steal the Faker's shoes?" asked Shadow, narrowing one eye dubiously.

"Affirmative."

Shadow and Rouge exchanged glances and shrugged.

"Could work," Shadow said resignedly.

"Well, all right," chuckled Rouge. "Let's go and swipe Sonic the Hedgehog's shoes, then hold them for ransom! Boy, I hope the folks in charge don't hear about this."

"I assume that implies that you find the endeavor somewhat ludicrous," said Omega gravely, stepping after the bat as she took off.

"Gosh darn it, Omega," grumbled Shadow, following as well. "Keep that up much longer, and you'll understand her better than I do."


	2. In the Deep

Outside, the sun was beating down mercilessly. Heat shimmered in the air, driving sweat into Shadow and Rouge's fur almost immediately. Omega's cooling system kicked in with a soft hiss.

"Where is everybody?" asked Shadow impatiently.

"In this weather?" said Rouge. "I'm thinking we should check the swimming hole."

Sure enough, everyone in the area had gathered around the old limestone pool in the woods, looking to swim or wade or at least enjoy the cool, heavy shade of the trees.

"Hey guys!" called Tails, waving. "Come to cool off, huh?"

Shadow shrugged and exchanged glances with Rouge. If they were going to get Sonic's shoes, they were going to have to make him take them off. Easy enough; they'd just have to play along for a bit.

"It's a bit hot, true," agreed Rouge lightly. "I didn't bring a swimsuit though, so I guess I'll just read. Got any spare magazines, Omega?"

"Secured, as always," replied Omega, tossing Rouge a magazine, settling down, and going into a peaceful semi-standby mode.

"Another automotive magazine?" sighed Rouge. "Omega, what did I tell you about reading those?"

Omega made no reply, so Rouge rolled her eyes and opened the magazine. Shadow half-heartedly dabbled his feet in the water—shoes and all! Some of the others exchanged glances. It was a long-debated question: did Shadow's shoes even come off, or were they part of his body? He had never once been seen without those jet shoes on his feet, and he grew touchy when asked to remove them. Besides that, they powered on and off seemingly at his will, not by any visible switch or trigger. Sonic had once attempted to test the matter scientifically, but had quickly learned not to do that again.

For a while things remained peaceful. Most of the older Mobians swam, while the younger set waded in the shallows at the edge of the pool. They had put up a new rope swing a while ago, and it was a big hit. Meanwhile, Sonic sat very determinedly _away_ from the water, of course.

"SHARK!" screamed Marine suddenly, pointing. Sure enough, there was a gray fin slicing the water nearby. There followed a general commotion and scramble for the land.

The shark surfaced presently. It turned out to be Silver, whose long back quills could easily pass for a sharkfin if he swam low in the water.

"Oh, did I scare you?" he asked, mischief glinting in his eyes.

"Agh! SILVER!" Marine threw herself at the hedgehog and pushed him underwater. "Not funny, mate!"

Laughing, Cream, Maria, and Tails joined the water fight. Rouge glanced up from her magazine and scooted away from the water a bit.

"Come on Sonic, you really should come in!" called Amy, waving. "The water's great!"

"No thanks. 'Great' and 'water' don't belong in the same sentence," shuddered Sonic.

"Come on, just once?" called Marine. "You should try the rope swing! It's ripper!"

Sonic eyed the rope dangling from a tree branch at the water's edge.

"Well . . . okay."

Striding boldly up to the rope, he grabbed it, pulled it back, and took a running start. He swung way out over the water, then arced back over the land again and landed neatly on his feet.

"Ta-da!"

"Very funny, Sonic," said Tails, grinning. "But you do have to actually let go of the rope, you know."

"What?" Sonic feigned disbelief. "Well now you're just asking too much!"

There came a chorus of protests and calls for him to try again.

"Scared?" grinned Knuckles.

"Well, that's a given," offered Shadow helpfully.

"All right, all right, okay!" protested Sonic. "Sheeeesh!"

Again he grabbed the rope, and took the longest running start you could imagine. He sailed out to the center of the pond, swinging high over the surface. At the very peak of the swing, he disconnected from the rope and tumbled into a spindash. The momentum of the swing carried the spinning hedgehog-ball several meters farther. When he uncurled, he landed on his feet squarely on the edge of the _opposite_ bank.

Smugly, he glanced over his shoulder and smirked. The pause cost him, however, because the bank suddenly caved in and sent him splashing into the shallow water after all. The others shouted with laughter.

"Ugh," groaned Sonic, shaking water from his quills. He chuckled resignedly. "Oh, all right. You win. I guess I'm wet anyway, so I might as well stay wet. Blegh."

Slipping off his shoes and socks and tossing them onto the bank, he joined the youngsters in the shallows.

Shadow and Rouge exchanged glances again. Perfect! Now all they had to do was swipe the shoes from where they lay. They would need a distraction, however . . .

With this in mind, Shadow slipped into the water as well. Only a little while ago, he hadn't even known how to swim, but after nearly drowning in the Sol dimension, he had quickly decided to learn. And what Shadow learned, he learned thoroughly; he was now quite an expert, nimble and swift.

Speaking of experts, Knuckles was a champion at swimming himself. While the others clowned around in the shallows, the echidna zipped smoothly back and forth along the deeper parts of the swimming hole, his dreadlocks streaming behind him. He was practically made for the water; he spun and tumbled like a porpoise, diving deep and breaching slightly when he resurfaced. You could easily mistake him for an otter.

This could be used to Team Dark's advantage. When Knuckles returned from a dive, Shadow paddled over. As the echidna resumed plowing from one end of the swimming hole to the other, Shadow deliberately kept pace with him, and at last pulled slightly ahead. At length Knuckles bobbed upright and began to tread water.

"Hey," he demanded good-naturedly. "You wanna race or somethin'?"

"If you have the nerve," smirked Shadow.

"You're on!" Knuckles flourished a fist out of the water. "Three laps?"

"Five."

"No problem!"

They warned the others to stay in the shallows, then headed to one end of the swimming hole, bracing their feet against the bank for a solid start. One lap counted as a full trip from one deep end of the pond to the other, then back. Maria called it.

The race was very close. Knuckles skimmed through the water smoothly, arcing up and down as he surfaced for breath and submerged for speed. Shadow followed the same basic pattern, but his stints underwater were much longer. He surfaced only once or twice from one end of the swimming hole to the other, and it was quite a distance.

The spectators hollered encouragement more and more enthusiastically as the last lap drew to a close. At the last minute Shadow lunged ahead, salmon-like, and won by a good three meters or more. He grabbed the bank and shook water from his ears coolly, as Knuckles shot into the finish and slammed his hands against the wall of the swimming hole. The echidna exploded above the surface and flopped against the bank briefly, half-panting, half-laughing from the adrenaline rush. Catching his breath, he promptly slid back underwater and bobbed up again, only just far enough for his eyes to show above the surface.

"Five laps a bit much?" Shadow asked the eyes sardonically.

Abruptly Knuckles popped back up to the surface and blew a mouthful of water into Shadow's face. There was an eternal second during which Shadow, one eye shut, dripped silently. Then he threw himself at the echidna and drove them both underwater. The others scrambled onto the bank as the brawlers tumbled into the shallows, tossing up masses of foamy water.

"Help, help, they're trying to kill each other!" cried Maria, as the water roiled and foamed.

"Is there blood?" called Rouge, looking up from her magazine.

"I don't think so . . . " Maria replied, squinting into the frothing tangle.

"They'll be fine, then," said Rouge, going back to reading. "Don't intervene unless there's blood."

For the most part, she was right. Shadow and Knuckles fought every now and then, just like Knuckles and Sonic did. They had never caused each other any severe or permanent damage—as long as they weren't on opposite sides of the moral battleline, it always carried a note of friendly sparring. That didn't mean they were pulling their punches any, though.

The others were mostly busy keeping an eye on Shadow and Knuckles in case they got carried away, so Rouge saw where the opportunity stood. Carefully, she laid aside her magazine and edged over to where Sonic's shoes still lay on the bank. If she could just grab them and toss them to Omega, he could conceal them until Team Dark made a graceful but early exit, and then the plan would begin in earnest. Piece of cake!

Only there had to be a complication. Just as Rouge grabbed the tied-together laces of the shoes, Knuckles attempted some kind of strange underwater jujitsu throw. He actually applied enough leverage to tumble Shadow out of the water and up onto the bank, where he succeeded in knocking down Rouge. Rouge, still clutching Sonic's shoes, somehow got tangled up in Shadow's rebound, and was dragged into the water with him.

"Calling halt!" she hollered, surfacing. "That's enough!" She ducked underwater and kicked Knuckles in the shoulder lightly to make her point. The echidna and hedgehog both surfaced, coughing and panting, while Rouge surfaced right after them. She was a good swimmer, and even her jumpsuit was well-adapted for it, but that wasn't what was on her mind just then. Glaring at Shadow, she shook her head vehemently to indicate there had just been a severe setback. He grimaced in understanding.

"Are you all right?" called Amy from the shore.

"Fine, fine," grumbled Rouge, stroking back to the bank. "But I think Sonic's shoes just got knocked to the bottom of the swimming hole."

"What?!" yelped Sonic. "You're kidding, right?"

"Nope," said Rouge, swinging up onto dry land and wringing water from her wings. "I accidentally kicked the shoes into the water when Shadow crashed into me."

"Aw, man!" Sonic rubbed his head unhappily. "That was my only pair!"

"Yeah, yeah," sighed Rouge. "A pity your shoes don't float. Is the water deep there?"

Knuckles flipped underwater briefly, then back upright.

"Deepest part of the swimming hole," he announced grimly.

"How deep is that?"

"Uh . . . " Knuckles grinned sheepishly. "Nobody's actually tried to go down that far to find out."

"Awww, great." Sonic gave a rueful chuckle. "Well, guess I'll just have to get a replacement pair fast, before the Egghead attacks again."

"You could always go down and get them," said Shadow sardonically.

"Thaaaanks, Shadster. I'd love to have them back, but I'm not so desperate that I'd _join_ them down there!"

"Relax," said Knuckles, waving one hand impatiently. "If you're going to raise such a fuss, I'll dive down and get 'em."

"Are you sure you can make it that deep, Mr. Knuckles?" asked Cream.

"Yeah, sure. Heck, I don't see _him_ volunteering," said Knuckles, giving Shadow a dirty look.

"I can also make it down that far," said Shadow calmly.

"Oh yeah? Well then, how about another competition?" smirked Knuckles. "Let's see if we can both make it down to the bottom, and who can find Sonic's shoes and get back to the surface first!"

Shadow nodded curtly, mirroring Knuckles' smirk.

"Guys, hey—" began Sonic, but received only a dismissive glance from Shadow.

"Don't get yourselves killed," warned Amy anxiously.

"We'll be fine," retorted Knuckles, already starting to take deep breaths in preparation for a stint underwater. "Maria, call it again?"

Maria glanced uneasily at the others, but got only some helpless shrugs in return. Sighing, she counted down from three and called "go!". Shadow and Knuckles both disappeared underwater. Two pairs of feet, one in jet-skates, flashed briefly above the surface, then disappeared.

"I really hope they don't get themselves killed," sighed Amy.

Far below the surface, Knuckles and Shadow stayed even, their feet stroking in a steady rhythm as they plunged deeper and deeper. The water around them turned from a transparent blue to a translucent green to a murky purple-black. Knuckles soon couldn't see where he was going, and had to hope that he would feel the bottom with his hands when he reached it. Shadow was beginning to have difficulty too, even with his superior night vision. When something struck him briefly in the shin, he assumed it was Knuckles' foot, but couldn't say for sure. Heck knew what kind of strange creatures might be lurking down here . . .

The water pressure was getting excruciating. It pressed in from every direction, firm and dark, looking for weak angles at which to crush one's skull. Where was the bottom? Dang . . . _was_ there a bottom?

Back on the surface, everyone was crowded around watching anxiously as the occasional bubble of air popped out of the water. The bubbles became less and less frequent over time . . . and it was a long time. Tails' twin tails kicked up a frothing eggbeater-like vortex as he twirled them in the water, spinning them just enough to keep himself submerged as he watched for Shadow and Knuckles. He surfaced for air only occasionally, then forced his head underwater again and kept looking.

"What do we do if they don't come back?" asked Amy fretfully, chewing on the knuckle of one finger. "They could die down there!"

"How long has it been?" asked Silver.

"Approximately two point three minutes," announced Omega.

"Man, this is killing me," groaned Sonic, pacing. He did _not_ like the idea of someone being somewhere he couldn't save them from, particularly since it was _his_ shoes that caused this whole mess.

Suddenly Tails burst up to the surface, grinning from ear to ear.

"They're coming! They're coming!" he coughed, waving his arms. A cheer went up, and only intensified when Shadow and Knuckles finally exploded up into the fresh air, alive and intact. They began to tread in place reflexively, both hauling laboriously for air and retching up lungfulls of water.

"Dammit," was the first thing Shadow managed to say between gasps. Meanwhile Knuckles, still not quite capable of speech, managed a smug grin and a toss. A pair of wet and somewhat compressed shoes splashed up onto the bank.

"Hope—you're—satisfied," panted Knuckles. He waved one hand abstractly and threw himself onto his back in the water to float while catching his breath.

"Darnit Knucklehead, next time leave them down there," said Sonic, scruffing up his quills with relief. "But thanks."

Knuckles grinned and tossed Shadow a smug glance.

"You did well," conceded Shadow tersely.

"Thanks. You weren't so bad y'self," smirked Knuckles.

Shadow made no further comment. He stuck about just a little while longer, then quietly left. Rouge and Omega glanced at each other and followed.

"What about the hostage?" asked Rouge under her breath, catching up to Shadow and shaking her head.

"I think we can do without a hostage," replied Shadow tightly.

"What, you mad that you didn't win the contest?"

"No," shrugged Shadow. "As far as I care the Faker's shoes could have stayed down there. But while I was searching for them, I found something better."

Smirking, he produced the green Chaos Emerald.


	3. Bus Stop, Wet Day

News on Mobius travelled in strange and mysterious ways. A few weeks later, rumors started to get around that Dr. Eggman was up to something crazy in a distant mining operation, and that's why he hadn't been seen lately. Pretty soon the whispers of evil intent grew so strong that Sonic figured he'd better go check the story out. He brought Tails and Knuckles with him.

"I hope you know what you're doing, Sonic," grumbled Knuckles. "If I had to leave the Master Emerald alone for a whole day just because Bob told Joe he'd heard Mary telling Mark something, I'm gonna be—"

"Relax, Knucklehead," scoffed Sonic, trotting ahead impatiently. "You needed a good jog anyway!"

Knuckles muttered something and squinted up at the sky, which was thickly overcast.

"Guys," said Tails anxiously, hovering alongside with his tails whirring. "What if we have trouble getting in? I heard the mines are really high-security."

"I'm sure it'll be fine," said Sonic confidently. "What's so special about these mines anyway?"

"They're built into an old volcano!" said Tails, who as usual had done his research. "It went extinct hundreds of years ago, but it left a huge hollow crater. Now all that's left is a thick circular wall of stone, surrounding a big empty space. The walls of the volcano are still full of diamonds carried up from deep inside the earth, and lots of rare and precious metals. It's one of the most valuable mining districts in Mobius!"

"Cool," said Sonic noncommitally, still forging ahead. "Heh, too bad they couldn't just mine up a few extra Chaos Emeralds!"

Tails' face grew serious.

"I don't know, Sonic. What if that's what Eggman's doing there—mining for Chaos Emeralds?"

"Ah, I was just kidding. There have to be only seven Chaos Emeralds, or the Master Emerald would get confused. Right Knux?"

"The Master Emerald does not get 'confused,'" retorted Knuckles, miffed. Sonic laughed.

"Lighten up, Knuckles. You know you were just dying for a chance to get out, have a nice run, see the sights and get a little fresh air . . . "

Abruptly the sky seemed to cleave open, and a deluge of rain slapped down at the three travellers. Knuckles gave Sonic a silent glare, to which Sonic grinned ruefully.

"Hey, you'd be getting wet on Angel Island too, right?"

Knuckles sighed and shook his head in resignation.

"There's the volcano!" cried Tails, pointing. And indeed, there it loomed through the curtains of rain, a vast mass of dark stone with a jagged top edge rising a good couple hundred feet above the ground. The sides were sheer and clearly slippery, glinting with the sudden rainfall even from a distance.

"There's some buildings next to it over there!" Tails added, and they all sped up a little until they could dive under the shelter of a gas station roof.

"Whoa," remarked Sonic, as Knuckles tried to wring out his dreadlocks. "It's pretty huge! How do we get in?"

"I think I see a tunnel," said Tails. "Let's try that."

A road led right up to the tunnel's darkened maw, and trucks and buses splashed Team Sonic with oily water as they dashed towards the volcano's side. A high chain-link fence topped with loops of barbed wire ran all the way around the volcano, except at the point where the road led into the tunnel.

However, when Sonic and the others tried to run through the gap in the fence, a man in a uniform suddenly popped out of a little booth and shouted "Hold it there!" They all skidded to a stop obediently when they saw the man holding up a rifle. He didn't look angry, or even unfriendly, but he still looked like he meant business.

"Sorry chums," he called. "Can't let you through here."

"But we need to get in!" Sonic called back. "Is there another door?"

The man laughed.

"Heck no. Only authorized road traffic is allowed through here, we can't have people just sailing in and out." He noticed Sonic's eyes straying to Tails, who was hovering in midair. "And don't even think of trying to fly in. The security over the volcano is even stronger, they have it set up with motion-sensitive machine guns. Poke your nose up there, and it'll be shot off."

Sonic grimaced. Tails tried in turn.

"Look, please mister, we've got to investigate—"

"Don't try anything," said the man wearily. "I wouldn't want to shoot you even if you made a dash for it, but you can bet I'd call the folks in charge. You might make it in, but you'd either be shot or arrested. Or both." He jerked his head back towards the little cluster of buildings nearby. "If you're really desperate to get in, go to the little white clapboard building up there and talk to Riley. He can give you a permit to ride a bus, if you really have a legit reason for entering."

"Got it!" said Sonic, brightening. "Thanks, mister!"

"Yeah, yeah, now get lost so I don't have to stand in the rain anymore," retorted the man, and kept a wary eye on the Mobians until they were a good distance away.

"Man," said Sonic, shaking his head. "That is some _high_ security, even for a diamond mine!"

"It's not just the diamond mine, though," said Tails. He pointed at a large road sign that read "Merkel Peak: Mines and Nature Preserve."

"I forgot to mention, there's also a really famous nature preserve inside the volcano's crater. The volcanic soil in there is really rich, and the climate is—well—rainy." Tails chuckled, shaking his damp hair-scruff out of his eyes. "There are a lot of really amazing and rare plants growing in there, so they have the area specially protected. They probably don't want people wandering in there and trampling or picking the plants."

"So they have a nature preserve, _and_ a mining operation, all inside one volcano?" said Knuckles dubiously. Tails shrugged.

"It's a really big space, for a volcano crater. Besides, the mining mostly goes on around the inner walls of the caldera, while the nature preserve is right in the middle. Somehow it must work."

"Well, we'll see for ourselves once we get those permits," said Sonic optimistically.

They found the clapboard building and went inside, trying not to drip on the wooden floor. It was something like a souvenir shop, with shelves full of trinkets and tchotchkes and little books about the history of the volcano. There were also some samples of rocks, minerals, and gemstones from the mine, kept behind glass, and a checkout counter with a little "Bus Permits Here" sign dangling above it. Sonic, standing on his toes to see above the countertop, cleared his throat.

"Ah?!" Riley, a balding man in a checkered shirt and suspenders, had been dozing in his chair behind the counter. Sitting up, he straightened his glasses and squinted at the Mobians.

"Well, what can I do you for?"

"Hi; we need bus permits to get into the volcano," smiled Sonic. The man twisted his mouth dubiously.

"Bus permits? What for?"

"Because . . . we need to get in?" began Sonic lamely, but Riley waved him into silence.

"Obviously, obviously, I know _that._ You've got to have a better reason than that, I can't let just anyone in there."

"We're here for research purposes," spoke up Tails suddenly. Sonic and Knuckles just barely avoided giving him surprised looks.

"Research purposes? You?" Riley chuckled. "You're not the first kiddos who've tried to sneak into Merkel Peak, but that's got to be one of the better excuses I've heard."

"It's not an excuse!" Tails looked righteously affronted. "I'm a registered research fellow at Spagonia University! I came all the way out here to study the _Brassica_ variants growing in the nature preserve."

"Oh, did you?"

"Yes, it's part of my thesis. Sonic and Knuckles here are my assistants," said Tails glibly. Sonic bit his tongue hard so he wouldn't burst out laughing, while Knuckles twitched in annoyance.

"Assistants, eh?" Riley looked amused too. "So then, kid genius, what are these brassicas of yours like?"

Tails launched into a detailed analysis of multiple species and subspecies, enumerating the various charms of plants that sounded oddly like cabbages and brussels sprouts. He did it so scientifically, however, that Riley was won over.

"Well, you win, kid," he chuckled, digging under the counter. "I don't know if you're with Spagonia University or not, but anyone who knows that much science has got to know some respect for nature too. You keep those assistants of yours in line now, you hear?"

"I'll make sure they behave," said Tails seriously, as Sonic made a peculiar sneezing sound.

"Now, these permits will let you ride any ingoing bus," said Riley, handing three plastic cards across the counter. "The next one's coming through in ten minutes. Hang onto the permits while you're inside, okay? You'll need them to board an outgoing bus too."

"Got it!" said Tails. "Thanks, Mr. Riley."

"Sure thing, kid genius."

Tails calmly led Sonic and Knuckles over to the other side of the store to wait. As they pretended to examine a glass case full of gold ore, Sonic punched Tails lightly in the shoulder, still struggling to contain his amusement.

"Get out Tails, that was awesome! Where did you come up with a story like that?" he whispered.

"I didn't really make it up," grinned Tails. "At least, not all of it. I really am a research fellow at Spagonia University, and I'm sure some wild _Brassica_ must grow in the nature preserve."

"Still, that was pretty cool," Sonic chuckled. Tails folded his arms and rocked back on his heels, smiling crookedly. He loved it when his smarts came in handy.

"Hey," said Knuckles abruptly, peering out the window. "There's a bus at the bus stop down there. It's not ours, is it?"

"Oh feathers, I forgot!" called Riley from across the room. "The buses are running early today. The next one doesn't come for two hours—"

"Yikes!" The Mobians all bolted out the door.

Outside, the rain was still pouring. Sonic led the way as they pounded down the long slope towards the bus stop, where a large blocky bus still rumbled idly.

"Wait, wait for us!" called Tails, waving the bus permits, and abruptly slipped on the muddy incline.

"You okay?" laughed Knuckles, glancing over as he dashed past. The lapse in concentration cost him though, as he promptly splashed down right next to Tails.

"Stop fooling around, you guys!" Sonic called, already almost at the bus stop. He slip-slid to a halt and glanced back. "Come on, come on, we've gotta—_oof!_" Somehow, what had meant to be a quick turn and jump to the sidewalk had misinterpreted itself as a series of frantic skids and a brief trip to the ground. Sonic shook out his head startledly and looked back to Knuckles and Tails, who were laughing so hard it was impeding their efforts to get back to their feet.

"Hey, can I help it if gravity hates me?" he hollered back, smirking. "No seriously guys, hurry up, the bus driver isn't going to hang around to watch our clown act."

Luckily though, the bus driver did wait long enough for the Mobians, still breathless and laughing, to scramble aboard. He nodded when Tails showed him the permits and waved for them to move towards the back of the bus.

"Thanks for waiting, mister," grinned Sonic, and led his teammates back. Knuckles saw an empty seat and moved towards it, but Sonic grabbed his shoulder.

"Nah, better not, Knux," he advised quietly, nodding back towards the bus driver. "The guy was nice enough to wait for us, least we can do is not get his bus seats all muddy."

"Hey, I'm only muddy in front," protested Knuckles good-naturedly.

"Oh, well, if you want me to fix that," Sonic grinned, scraping a handful of mud from the back of his ear.

"Don't even think about it!"

Tails laughed at the others' clowning, then gave a stifled yelp as the bus started up and he found himself sitting on the floor. Sonic hoisted him cheerfully to his feet, as Knuckles also staggered slightly. Buses, especially large ones, tend to sway a lot with every acceleration and deceleration.

"Whoa!" protested Tails, staggering again as they went around a curve. Sonic and Knuckles grabbed hold of the looped straps hanging from the ceiling, some of which were hung low enough for Mobians. Tails, however, was a small Mobian, and thus couldn't reach.

"Want a hand?" asked Sonic, as Tails strained to reach the nearest strap and almost fell over again.

"No, I've got it," said Tails stubbornly, reaching as far as he could. No dice. He sighed in resignation. "Oh, all right, maybe I could _sorta_ use some help—"

"No problem, little buddy!" said Sonic, and lifted Tails up lightly so he could grab the strap.

"Oh, ha ha," said Tails, his feet now dangling several inches from the floor. Sonic struggled not to laugh too hard; Tails aimed a playful kick in his direction.

"Guys," hissed Knuckles, fighting back a grin. "Cut it out. It's only a matter of time before the other passengers start complaining about rowdy teenagers."

"There's rowdy teenagers in here? Shame on them!" deadpanned Sonic. "Somebody should kick them out!"

Still, he and Tails looked a little guilty and stopped whooping it up. Luckily, the other passengers didn't even seem to notice. They were a stolid sort of bunch, all wrapped up in high-collared raincoats and topped with miner's hats. Now that the Mobians stopped to look around, they were a little creeped out all of a sudden. Nobody was reading a newspaper or listening to music or anything; they were all just sitting and looking straight ahead. As the bus entered the tunnel through the side of the volcano and the interior was plunged into darkness punctuated by an occasional sickly-yellow light, nobody shuffled or coughed or scratched his ear. It was unnerving.

"Why's everyone so uptight?" whispered Sonic.

"Maybe the mines are really bad," said Tails, his suddenly worried face highlighted by a shifting glow as another light streaked past. "Maybe they're scared or unhappy."

"Or maybe the weather's got them down?" Knuckles suggested through the following darkness.

"Hmm," Sonic replied. As another light flashed by the windows, he stepped over to the nearest miner and tapped him on the shoulder politely. The bus plunged into darkness again as Sonic began, "Hey mister, 'scuse me, my friends and I were just wondering—hey!"

There was a muffled thud.

"Sonic?!" cried Tails through the darkness.

"Geez dude, what was that for?" protested Sonic's voice. "You didn't even hear the question yet, did you just feel like socking someone in the jaw today? Listen, I just—"

There was another thud, and an angry exclamation from Sonic. Tails was getting rattled now; unconsciously he drew closer to Knuckles, since he didn't know where Sonic was.

Just then the bus reached the end of the tunnel. As the black faded to gray and then burst into cloudy daylight, Sonic was revealed clutching the jacket arm of the fellow he'd been trying to speak with. In his attempts to pull free, the guy lost his hat—revealing a faceless ovaloid metal head.

"What the—?!" Sonic let go of the raincoat at once. "You're a—a robot!"

The bus rocked to a halt as the robot stood up and shed its raincoat, revealing a sleek metallic body. All up and down the aisle, the passengers and even the bus driver began to stand up and throw off their coats, revealing similar humanoid forms. Team Sonic was soon surrounded by a passel of tall robots—all with the Eggman ensigna emblazoned on their chests.


	4. Into the Fray

"Well, this isn't good," remarked Sonic, rather unnecessarily. Knuckles growled and put up his fists. In an enclosed space, and heavily outnumbered, they were in for a rough time—but they were ready. Patiently they stood, waiting for the enemy to make the first move. Then a metallic blur suddenly broke from the pack and charged at Sonic, raising a pickaxe. A smashing of metal, the robot lay in pieces on the floor—and the fight was on.

"Gerroutta my way!" roared Knuckles, springing headlong into the fray and mowing down swathes of robots with each swing of his fists. He also demolished any bus seats that happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, but collateral damage wasn't really high on the team's list of worries just then.

Sonic had just been grabbed from behind and hoisted into the air by a robot. Kicking furiously, he struggled to squirm free, but the robot's grip was tight. Never at a loss, Sonic swung his feet back and braced them against the robot's chest. Then, pushing off as hard as he could, he flipped himself upside-down and kicked the robot in the head, knocking it off cleanly. The disabled 'bot's grip loosened at once, and Sonic fell headfirst. Tumbling lightly, he rolled back onto his feet and dove at the next opponent.

Meanwhile, Tails was surrounded by a good half-dozen robots, all closing in menacingly with sharp mining implements. The little fox seemed to cower, waiting for the mass of steel to pile upon him—then at the last second, when the robots were practically on him, he sprang into the air and powered up his tails. With a scream of slicing metal, the robots hit the floor, one after another.

"Seven in one shot!" whooped Tails, pumping his fist above his head in exuberance. The moment of lapsed focus nearly got him clobbered by another 'bot, but Knuckles swung in at the last second and punched the attacker all the way to the front of the bus.

"Not a bad move, squirt, but stay focused!" he shouted above the noise of combat.

"Right, right," said Tails, reddening and returning hastily to the brawl.

"Heads up, fellas!" Sonic hollered from the back. Jumping up onto the backseat of the bus, he tumbled into a spindash, launched suddenly into the air, and ricocheted off the ceiling. Hitting a robot on the way down, he glanced off and struck a wall. Soon he was pinballing all over the bus, leaving dents in the walls and ceiling, smashing windows as well as robots, and forcing Knuckles and Tails to dive for cover.

When at last Sonic's spindash ran out of steam, he gave one final bounce off the floor and landed neatly on his feet, looking around for more 'bots to smash—only to find there were none. The interior of the bus was a wreck: bolts and shards of broken windows were sprinkled all over a thick layer of exploded 'bots, demolished bus seats, and dropped pickaxes, all of which in turn rested on a carpet of discarded raincoats.

"Guys?" called Sonic, looking around. "Guys, where'd ya go?"

One of the overturned bus seats heaved, and a grumbling Knuckles clambered out from underneath it. Tails slipped out from under another, twitching fragments of safety glass from his fluffy tails.

"You could at least give us a warning," scowled Knuckles. Evidently he was annoyed that he hadn't gotten a bigger piece of the action before Sonic cleaned up the opposition.

"Hey, I said 'heads up'!" protested Sonic. He looked around at the wreckage again. "You know, I think we'd better get going. The old Egghead might have security sensors on his buses, and either way the next busload is bound to come and find out about this eventually." Picking his way to the door, he began tugging aside various mangled pieces of metal that were piled up against it. Knuckles watched his efforts for a moment, then lost patience.

"Move aside, pipsqueak," he grunted, and heaved away the entire heap of metal in one go.

"There, Knucklehead, what would we do withoutcha?" grinned Sonic with a grand sweep of his hand.

"Don't give me that," Knuckles retorted grumpily, but gave a somewhat mollified smirk all the same.

"Didja see me get those robots all at once?" asked Tails hopefully, as Knuckles got to work forcing open the bus's doors.

Sonic scruffed up Tails' hair proudly. "Oh, I saw it all right. Good job little buddy, seven in one go! New record, isn't it?"

"Uh-huh," said Tails, beaming. "What's your record, Sonic?"

"Ahh—trade secret," laughed Sonic. Actually his record was something like thirty-eight in one spindash, but he didn't want to say that and ruin Tails' moment. The kid was learning yet—his thirty-eight would come someday.

"So, I guess the rumors were true, huh?" remarked Knuckles, finally prying his mittened hands between the bus's doors and hopping outside into the now-drizzling rain. "Eggman really is up to something in here."

"He must be after something in the mines," agreed Tails. "Look at those robots. They were all carrying pickaxes, and they weren't designed for battle at all. They didn't even have any built-in weapons! Eggman isn't trying a forceful takeover, he's digging for something."

"Time to talk to the man himself," said Sonic grimly.

They set out to find Eggman, peering around themselves at the strange scenery. Nearby, an enormous wall of stone again towered into the sky—but this time its curve was concave, because they were inside the volcano's crater. If you followed its curve to the left or the right, it eventually trailed off into the distance, becoming murky through the hazy rainfall. Far, far off, a good mile or two, the wall on the opposite side of the crater occasionally peeked darkly through the mist. Above them the sky was still gray and weepy, and below them the ground was moist and springy, smelling strongly of rich wet earth and coated with a thick mat of grass.

"The nature preserve must be that way," said Tails, pointing at a looming mass of jungly green. "And the mines must be that way," pointing towards a distant clanking and roaring.

Finding Eggman wasn't hard. An enormous tent was set up near the mine compound, its drab canvas color almost matching the drab biege of the trailers and buildings—although the giant bright-red Eggman logo on the side kind of spoiled the effect.

Sonic nodded to the others and led them softly around to the back of the tent. Feeling along the bottom edge of the canvas, he found an area where the it was loosely fastened and pried it up gently. Then, drawing a deep breath, he lifted up the canvas and slipped through—

"Hello there, Sonic."

—Apparently, right under Eggman's nose.

Sure enough, when Sonic's head jerked up, he found himself looking straight up into Eggman's bespectacled eyes. The hedgehog's teeth bared, as he rose stiffly to his feet, fists clenched, shoulders drawn up in preparation to fight.

"You can stop bristling," said Eggman almost boredly. And tell your little friends—" Tails, caught half-in and half-out of the canvas gap, gave a little yelp of startlement "—that they might as well come in too."

Sonic only snarled again, and motioned for Tails to back out of the tent to safety instead. Stubbornly, Tails shimmied inside anyway, and Knuckles slipped in after him. The three of them stood and glared at Eggman silently for a moment. Dr. Eggman himself was settled comfortably back in a large office chair, currently swiveled away from a large desk bestrewn with papers. A greasy-looking cup of coffee was leaving a dark ring on a sheet of graphing paper. Silently the evil genius surveyed the intruders, stroking one side of his mustache between his fingertips.

"Well?" he said at length. "What do you want? Come to have yourselves a little thrill, ganging up on an unarmed old man? Oh yes, I'm unarmed," he scoffed, catching Sonic's disbelieving look. "Unarmed and completely defenseless. Unless you count _him_." He gestured disparagingly over towards Bokkun, who was perched on a packing crate nearby scarfing a candy bar and watching something on one of his TVs. Apparently, there was some way of preventing the devices from exploding.

"Don't play innocent with us, Eggman," snapped Sonic, stepping forward. "We know you're up to something!"

"Do you?" Eggman leered amusedly. "Then what exactly am I up to?"

"I didn't say we knew _what_," growled Sonic, momentarily thrown. "But whatever it is, it's no good. Did you seriously think we wouldn't catch on to you?"

"Listen, hedgehog," grunted Eggman, turning back to his desk and rummaging among the papers. "Genius or no, I can't make something out of nothing. Manufacturing robots takes up a lot of resources, a lot of raw metal, and it's not exactly cost-efficient either. I happen to go through robots rather quickly—mostly thanks to you and your little friends, I might add—" he gave them a dirty look "—and I often need to purchase more bulk metal and electronic equipment. This mine, through a contract agreeable to both its owner and myself, is my means of obtaining enough capital and assets to fund my—hrm, projects." He glanced up, and appeared unimpressed when he saw that only Tails didn't look utterly confused.

"It's a diamond mine," he said flatly. "I earn money from it."

"Seriously?" Sonic snorted, recovering from his brief confusion. "You're just sitting here innocently diamond mining?"

"More or less, yes," shrugged Eggman. "There are also metallic lodes mixed in with the diamond deposits, which provide some of the raw metal I use. Mostly though, I use my share of the diamonds from this mine to finance my work. It's all strictly legal, my pestilential blue friend."

"Oh, suuuure," scoffed Sonic. "How many times have you done something that _looked_ totally legal, but was really an evil plot? Let me see now." He began to count exaggeratedly on his fingers. "Eggman's Interstellar Amusement Park, Eggman's Day-Glo Sun-Light thingymajigs, Eggman's Fake-Team-Chaotix-Client, Eggman's Warm-Weather Suntan Balm—"

"I didn't ask for the Broadway routine!" interrupted Eggman annoyedly, waving at Sonic as if he was a particularly large mosquito. "Cut the theatrics, rodent, I'm a busy man. Go talk to the mine foreman, Sam, and if he doesn't tell you it's all perfectly legal, you can come back and lay this place to flinders if you so choose."

Sonic and his friends looked at each other dubiously.

"All right," said Sonic at last, his tone still belligerent. "We'll ask him. And we'll keep you to your word, Egghead, so don't try anything funny!"

"Get out of here, before I act upon my urge to destroy you," grunted Eggman. Slowly, never taking their eyes off the Doctor and his messenger robo, Team Sonic backed out through the front flap of the tent.

Once outside, they headed straight for the mine. Unlike most mines, which dig downwards, this one dug horizontally into the wall of the volcano. The gaping maw of a tunnel split through the rock, lit dimly inside by electric work lights. A large generator roared just outside, powering the lights, and an occasional cart full of rubble trundled out on a set of tracks, bumping to a halt against a battered pair of buffers. Nearby, a weather-worn man with a clipboard stood by the approaching carts, counting and examining them. Sonic trotted over.

"Hi mister, are you Sam?"

"Yup." The man looked up from his clipboard and peered at Sonic, Knuckles, and Tails dubiously, rain dripping from the brim of his hard hat. "What in the world are you, and who let you in here?"

"We got permits from Riley," said Tails boldly, stepping up and proferring the bus permits. Sam studied them for a while, then looked the Mobians up and down again.

"And what exactly are you here for, then?"

This time, Knuckles spoke up.

"We're here for research," he said smoothly, his sixteen-year-old voice adding a very convincing ring to the statement. "We're part of an environmental protection society, and we were planning to study the Brassoons in the wild here."

Tails winced and mouthed "_Brassica_," but luckily refrained from correcting Knuckles out loud.

"The nature preserve is that way," said Sam wearily, pointing with one arm while already looking back to his clipboard.

"It's not about that!" persisted Knuckles. "We couldn't help but notice the Eggman logo on that tent over there, and we got concerned. Eggman's plots are famous for causing huge environmental damage! Are you sure it's a good idea letting him camp here, where he might upset the delicate balance of nature with his scheming?"

Sonic and Tails were trying very hard not to stare at Knuckles with their mouths open now. Who'd have thought the old Knucklehead could come up with such a slick and convincing fib? It didn't seem to suit his bluntly honest personality. But then again—he'd seen what Eggman could do to his beloved Angel Island. Environmental damage was probably high on his list of "Top 10 Reasons to Hate Eggman."

Meanwhile, Sam was looking at Knuckles as if he were a whiny two-year-old.

"Look, kiddo," he grunted impatiently. "The mine isn't causing any environmental damage, y'hear? We run strictly by government protection standards."

"It's not the mine, it's _him,_" said Knuckles, adopting a similar tone of resigned explanation to a toddler. "Are you just going to let him plot something dangerous, right on your land?"

"He's not plotting, all right?" groaned Sam. "He has a contract signed with us. He provides us with robot workmen to get the job done faster; we give him a share of the diamonds and all the junk metal we dig up. It's all legit, kiddos. Let the man dig for his fortune, why doncha?"

"But—but—how do you know—"

"Kiddos," said the foreman, now becoming very annoyed. "It's a standard mine. I run it. I decide where we dig, how we dig, when we dig. All he does is provide labor and take some of the diggings. You got a problem with that?"

"Uh—we—I—" Knuckles looked helplessly to his teammates.

"I hate to say this," said Tails heavily, "but this may be on the level after all. I mean, they're right—Eggman does need to get money and metal for his robots _somewhere_. Would it be impossible for him to do it in a non-evil way?"

"I dunno," muttered Sonic, clearly not happy. He peered suspiciously into the dim depths of the mine, as if expecting a demon to come riding out on the next cartload of ore.

While Team Sonic continued to poke around and discuss in hushed tones, a workman came striding from one of the nearby buildings and spoke rapidly to Sam. Sam listened, growing grimmer and grimmer, then nodded and stepped up to Team Sonic.

"Hey, you three," he said, towering over the startled Mobians. "Didja get here by bus?"

"Yeah, we showed you the permits," said Tails uneasily, fumbling for the little plastic cards again. Sam scowled.

"I just got word that Bus 24 and its robot crew were found in the end lot, completely trashed. We phoned Riley, and he said the only people getting on Bus 24 were you three. Kinda shady lot, he said you looked like—and I'd agree!"

Before Sonic could even snap "Hey!", Sam had reached down and grabbed his arm.

"I reckon you've got some answering to do," growled the man. Sonic tried to make a run for it, but only succeeded in dragging Sam along a short ways before he grabbed the nearby buffers and held firm, hoisting Sonic up into the air by his arm. Sonic saw the jig was up.

"Run guys, run!"

Knuckles and Tails ran all right, but not in the direction Sonic had meant.

"No! Get out of here, save yoursel—" He was interrupted by Sam clamping a hand over his mouth.

"That's enough out of you," he growled. "All three of you."

Sonic, kicking furiously but unwilling to seriously injure his captor, could only watch as Knuckles and Tails were seized.


	5. The Great Escape

"I _told_ you to run!" grumbled Sonic, swinging his feet to an angry rhythm. "You could've at least gotten yourselves out of here!"

"And leave you to get jailed?" said Tails wearily. "Right."

"Besides, technically, we _did_ kinda damage the mine's property," said Knuckles. "We sort of deserve to be here."

He rapidly subsided under the dirty looks Sonic and Tails gave him.

"They were freaking robots, with the freaking Eggman symbol, and they freaking _attacked_ us!" Sonic retorted. "Of course we were going to trash them! They started it. Besides, we didn't even know they belonged to the mine, and they probably _don't._ Not if they have the Eggman symbol on them."

"Either way," sighed Tails, "we're just stuck here till the police come."

"I can hardly wait," said Sonic drily, flopping back onto the only wooden bench in the room. They were being kept under lock and key in one of the buildings until they could be properly arrested and questioned. It was going to be a while; the police had to come all the way from a nearby town, and get security clearance to get through the volcano's entrance tunnel.

"Do you think they'll buy it if we say the robots started it?" asked Knuckles glumly.

"Maybe. But I hate to think what kinduva field day the Egghead's gonna have with this," sighed Sonic. "I bet he'd love a chance to make us look like criminals and get us all thrown in the slammer."

Knuckles gave a muffled growl.

Suddenly from down the hallway came a sound of quick footsteps. The three Mobians perked up—that sounded like much too fast and light a stride to belong to a human, especially an adult one. Stranger still, the footsteps stopped right in front of the door to the room where they were being kept.

Sonic jumped to his feet warily as the lock suddenly started to rattle. Sure enough, someone was opening the door! Tensely they waited, until the lock clicked open and the door swung ever so slightly ajar. A pair of blue eyes peered cautiously around it, then the door was flung open the rest of the way and Maria came skidding in.

"Maria! What are you doing here?!" cried Knuckles.

"Shhh! Shh!" she warned, putting a finger to her lips. "I'm here with Uncle Julian, and I'm breaking you out! Hurry, run!"

"No way!" Sonic hissed back. "We couldn't do that, you'd get in trouble! If we really wanted to get away that badly, we could have Knuckles punch down the wall, but we're _definitely_ not getting you mixed up in this!"

"But right now you're innocent!" retorted Maria, with surprising nerve. "I know how Uncle Julian's robots can be. I'm sure it wasn't your fault that you had to fight them. But if you break the wall, then you'll be guilty of property damage for real!"

"We still won't get you in trouble," said Sonic stubbornly.

"You won't, you won't," urged Maria, desperately trying to tug Tails towards the doorway. "Uncle Julian wouldn't hurt me. Besides, here—" she shoved a strange metal device into Tails' hand "—throw this lockpick on the floor outside the door, and by the time Uncle Julian and the others get here, I'll be long gone. They'll just think you picked your way out!"

"Just how much time have you been spending with Rouge?" asked Sonic uneasily, as Tails hastily made a few scratches around the lock to heighten the lockpicking illusion.

"Go, hurry!" was Maria's only reply. "Before someone comes!"

Resigned, the Mobians waved their goodbyes and shot off down the hallway, heading for the front door. Maria waved after them and hurried off in the other direction.

Bursting out the front door of the building, the Mobians took off in earnest. Without even thinking, they pelted towards the thick stand of woods looming nearby—the nature preserve. They didn't hear any shouts behind themselves, which they took to be a good thing. Plunging into the thick, cool greenery of the forest, they dodged and weaved among trees and bushes until they felt they were reasonably out of danger. Tails and Knuckles sank down on a fallen tree, panting, while Sonic skittered back and forth restlessly.

"We've gotta keep moving," he said, tugging his ears. "They're going to start looking for us soon."

"We're running from the law," said Knuckles heavily. "Like common criminals."

"Oh, come on, we acted in self-defense! And do you think Eggman'd let us get away with that excuse? Heck no!" Sonic smacked his fist into his palm. "And after Maria went out on a limb for us like that, we can't just throw it away. We've got to get out of here."

"How?" asked Tails despondently. "We can't exactly take the bus out, and you heard what they said about flying. Motion-sensing machine guns! I can't dodge very fast while I'm carrying someone."

Sonic sighed, scruffing up his quills. Rain pattered on the thick leafy canopy overhead, and an occasional fat droplet plopped down from a leaftip somewhere.

"D'you think that guy was serious about those machine gun thingies?" he said at length.

"Yeah, dead serious," said a sudden fourth voice. Sonic and the others all jumped and whirled around, just in time to see Rouge slipping lightly from a nearby tree. A dark form dropped down after her—Shadow.

"What are you guys doing here?!" spluttered Knuckles.

"Ah, licking our wounds, as of now," said Rouge, extending one wing. Two neat punctures glinted side-by-side in the membrane, each ringed by a small circlet of congealing blood. Meanwhile, Shadow was subconsciously keeping his weight off one leg, and a rapidly-healing but obviously recent gash showed on his arm, etched in a perfectly straight groove.

"Are you guys okay?" asked Tails, his eyes wide.

"What, this? S'nothin'," said Rouge flippantly. "We managed to fly in, but they didn't seem to like it very much. We're not too keen on flying back out, and I couldn't make it on this wing anyway. You guys got any other ideas?"

"No." Knuckles tilted his head. "Is that wing going to heal?"

"It'd better," shrugged Rouge. Tails blinked up at her and Shadow in something like awe. Hanging out with Sonic and Knuckles a lot, he was used to a cavalier attitude towards injuries, but this was really something else.

"So, what's in here that's so awesome that you risked life and limb for it?" asked Sonic. "Are you here to take down Eggman too? 'Cos we could really use a hand with that—"

"Spare your breath," interrupted Shadow coolly. "What the doctor does is no concern of ours."

"Hey dude, he could be threatening the safety of Mobius—"

"He's mining." Shadow's reply was unruffled enough to be utterly scathing. "That is beside the point."

"Oh, well, excuuuuse me," growled Sonic. For a second there was tense silence.

"Is that?—" Tails jumped suddenly, pointing at a small device in Rouge's hand. "That's a Chaos Emerald tracker! Is there one in the volcano?"

Shadow and Rouge exchanged disgruntled looks.

"Yeah, yeah, we kind of came here looking for it," said Rouge, obviously resentful at having to share this information. "There's supposed to be one in this jungle somewhere."

"Awesome! We'll help you guys!" said Sonic at once.

"I was afraid you'd say that," muttered Rouge.

Still, she and Shadow didn't raise any major objections as Team Sonic tagged along beside them. The rain continued to patter overhead as they picked their way through the dense woods, Shadow limping slightly. Rouge kept a careful watch on the Chaos Emerald tracker, and Tails had eyes only for the plant life surrounding them. Occasionally he would make a little sound of delight and dart away to examine a particular fern or flowering vine.

"They really do have amazing plant varieties here," he announced blissfully. The others smiled patiently, or rolled their eyes rather less patiently.

At last Rouge paused, squinted at the tracker again, and twitched her ears resignedly.

"That's as close as this thing is going to get us," she announced. "It isn't the most accurate, but the Emerald should be at least thirty yards from this spot. Guess we'd better get to work."

It took them only five minutes of searching; soon Knuckles called "I've got it!" and swung down from a tree with the cyan Chaos Emerald.

"Sweet!" whooped Sonic. "Now Shads can just Chaos Control us all out of here."

"No," retorted Shadow, folding his arms.

"Oh for Pete's sake, don't be an—"

"When I say no, I mean I cannot," interrupted Shadow. "If it were possible to Chaos Control in and out of here, do you think Rouge and I would have bothered risking machine gun fire?"

"You can't Chaos Control?!" said Sonic, surprised. Shadow shrugged, took the Chaos Emerald from Knuckles, and shouted "Chaos Control!" For a second his body shimmered with bars of blue-green light, like a failing TV picture; then the shimmers abruptly stopped and he was standing there fully solid again.

"Not into or out of the volcano, anyway," he said coolly, in reply to the others' disbelieving looks. "It's probably part of the security measures; I understand the military has recently developed a shielding device that prevents Chaos Control from travelling through it. They may have encased the volcano in an invisible dome of that sort."

"Or it could just be ordonium deposits in the area," added Rouge. "It would explain why our tracker and Omega both glitched up outside the volcano."

"Omega? Is he okay?" asked Tails solicitously.

"He's fine now, but we had to send him home," sighed Rouge. "He doesn't deal with ordonium very well; as soon as he got close the volcano he started to solemnly swear he was Napoleon."

"Which isn't that different from his usual mindset," remarked Shadow sardonically. "But he's usually more taciturn about it."

"Yeah, yeah, whatever. So then, how do we get out of here?" asked Knuckles.

Rouge shrugged. Meanwhile, Sonic knitted his brows in thought, then suddenly grinned.

"Well . . . we could take the bus."

"You're not serious!" protested Tails. "They'll catch us again!"

"No, no, I have an idea," said Sonic. "Come on, Riley said the buses only come every two hours, there should be one coming through just about now. Follow me!"

Reaching the edge of the woods, they paused and peered out towards the bus lot. Sure enough, another rumbling bus was parked behind the demolished one, disgorging its robotic crew. Once the robot miners had left, the bus laboriously started up, backed away, and turned around, grumbling its motor all the while. Apparently the driver was preparing to head back the way he'd come. First, however, he blew the horn and idled the motor again, evidently waiting for any outbound passengers. A couple of robots were already stumping over from the direction of the mines; probably they had been sent out to fetch supplies or get repaired.

"Hurry, now's our only chance!" whispered Sonic, as the two new robots entered the bus. The five Mobians broke from the cover of the woods and scurried to the side of the bus, keeping their heads as low as possible. Once they were right beside the quivering bulk of the vehicle, the windows were high enough above their heads that they wouldn't be seen from inside.

Shadow and Knuckles kept watch for any more approaching passengers as Sonic crept along the side of the bus. Soon he reached what he was looking for—the external luggage compartment. Tucking his tongue into the corner of his mouth, he pried his fingers between the door of the compartment and the side of the bus, fiddling with the lock. At last, with a faint _pop_, it gave way and allowed Sonic to carefully swing the panel open.

"Empty," he called softly to the others, a gleeful note lacing his voice. "Climb on in!"

"You've gotta be kidding me!" hissed Rouge.

"Go on, get in!" Sonic hissed back, waving. "It's the only way to get out of here unnoticed!"

Tails, looking resigned, was already clambering into the dark recess where long-distance travelers usually stored their suitcases. Rouge looked mutinous, but at last growled something and slipped in after him. Knuckles was just about to follow when Shadow barked softly, "Someone's coming!"

Sonic slammed the luggage compartment shut frantically. He, Shadow, and Knuckles scrambled around to the other side of the bus and pressed back against it, holding their breaths. Had they been seen? The clank of robotic footsteps came nearer and nearer, then paused. Then—horrors!—it started to walk around the front of the bus, towards the side where the Mobians were hiding.

Knuckles shot the others a wide-eyed look that said "They've seen us!", but they still entertained desperate hopes. Silently they whisked around the back of the bus, back to the side they had started on. The footsteps paused again on the opposite side, as if their owner was _sure_ he had seen something there. Then the robot also started to return to the original side of the bus, again walking around the front. Shadow mouthed a curse.

This time, the three Mobians didn't go all the way around the bus, but stopped squarely behind it, ready to dive to one side or the other if need be. The game of ring-around-the-rosies was wearing pretty thin already.

Mercifully, however, they heard the automatic doors of the bus whoosh open, and the robot clambered aboard. Knuckles blew a sigh of relief, while Sonic swiped sweat from his forehead and fought back a grin.

Just as they were edging back around towards the luggage compartment, a new disaster struck: the bus gave a roar and began to slowly pull away from them. For a second the three Mobians glanced at each other blankly; then they took off after the retreating vehicle.

Keeping pace with the bus was easy, especially since it was just starting. Shadow threw his weight onto his uninjured leg and sprang lightly up onto the roof. Sonic jumped after him, then reached back to haul up Knuckles, who had just barely made the jump and was clinging to the roof's rear edge.

"Okay?" Sonic asked breathlessly, glancing from Knuckles to Shadow.

"I wonder if the tunnel has enough clearance to let us through," remarked Shadow blandly. Sonic winced.

"Wish you hadn't brought that up."

Knuckles dug in his knuckle-spikes grimly and flattened himself against the rain-slick rooftop. Sonic and Shadow did likewise, to escape detection, hopefully clear the tunnel ceiling, and avoid being thrown off the bus entirely. The lurching and swaying was even worse up here.

"Who gave this guy his license?" muttered Shadow, as the bus slowed down violently and sent them all sliding towards the front.

"Eggman, probably," retorted Sonic.

It wasn't a pleasant ride. They did fit under the tunnel ceiling, luckily, but the wind caused by the bus's movement stung their eyes and faces unpleasantly, and the air was thick with dust and exhaust fumes. They were all relieved when they reached the other end of the tunnel and emerged into the cool rainfall again. They also managed to escape the notice of the guy guarding the gap in the fence, and of the passing police cars. Sonic and Knuckles exchanged sardonic looks.

The bus didn't stop anywhere in the little village, which was fine by the Mobians. Riley or someone else might have seen them. They rode for a mile or two more, then the bus stopped at a town to let the robots off.

Sonic, Knuckles, and Shadow knew they didn't have long to act. Completely disregarding whether the passengers might see them or not, they leaped off the roof of the bus and headed for the luggage compartment. Before Sonic could even make a move to open it though, it exploded open of its own accord. Rouge and Tails tumbled out, looking somewhat carsick but otherwise intact.

"Let's go!" warned Knuckles before any protests could start, and they all took off for dear life.

At last they slowed to a halt, all the way on the other side of town.

"Well," panted Rouge. "That was interesting."

"Pretty cool though, huh?" grinned Sonic.

Shadow rolled his eyes and turned to leave.

"Hey!" called Knuckles sharply. "What about our Chaos Emerald?"

"_Your_ Chaos Emerald?" Shadow glanced back. "You wouldn't even have known to look for it if we weren't there. We were the ones who originally came looking for it."

"_And_ got injured trying," added Rouge, folding her arms.

"Yeah, they're right," said Sonic ruefully, putting a restraining hand on Knuckles' shoulder. "It was their hunt, we just got tangled up in it. It's only fair they get to keep it."

"Huh!" Knuckles shook his dreadlocks angrily. "_Fine_."

"See you guys!" called Tails, waving at the retreating members of Team Dark. Shadow just kept walking, but Rouge turned briefly and waved back.

"You know," she remarked, catching up to Shadow again. "I suppose we _could_ have let them keep that one. Especially since we do already have one of our own."

"As if they need to know that," said Shadow, pulling out the green Chaos Emerald to match the cyan one. "It's not like you to suggest that."

"Eh, it was just a thought," shrugged Rouge. She eyed the two glowing gems covetously. "Truth be told, I've kind of got my sights set on all seven."


	6. Through the Woods

**Last chance to enjoy fluff! Next chapter starts things in earnest.**

**By the way, I'm probably going to be updating on Tuesdays, Fridays, or both, depending on how far ahead the content is staying. **

**And a big thank you to everyone who's been reviewing, following, or faving so far! **

* * *

For a few days, then a few weeks, Sonic and the others waited for something to happen. Nothing did. Eggman seemed to still be peacefully mining away back at Merkel Peak. Eventually, an event came up that distracted the crew from hypothetical threats: Tails's birthday.

The little fox's last birthday had been something of a disaster, as one of Eggman's more dramatically proportioned plots had been in full swing at the time. This year, Sonic and the others wanted to make up for it. Since Tails loved camping, they set up a hiking trip into the hills nearby, ending at a remote little campsite that only Sonic knew the location of. Tails was over the moon; he had instantly agreed to give up on hard-to-transport birthday cake and presents in exchange for the trip.

Some of the others weren't quite so ecstatic, though.

"Remind me again why I came along for this lunacy, which does not even involve cake as compensation," Shadow growled under his breath from the end of the line.

"Chaos Emerald," murmured Rouge tersely, glancing around to see if anyone was in earshot. "Don't tell me you forgot, wise guy? Judging from the direction we're heading, it's going to be pretty near the campsite."

"And _why_ could you not get the Chaos Emerald yourself?"

"Because Omega can't hike, and I'm not leaving you alone with him for two days," retorted Rouge. "I'd kind of prefer HQ to still be standing when I get back."

"So we should have all stayed behind."

"And let _them_ get the next Chaos Emerald?" Rouge snorted. "Besides, I kinda fancy a nice camping trip. Relaxing."

"Right," said Shadow drily.

"Let's sing a song!" hollered Marine abruptly. "A campin' song!"

"Yeah, let's sing the Never-Ending Song!" called Charmy. "_This is the song that never ends, it just goes on and on my friends! Some people started singing it! They didn't know what it was! And they're gonna keep on singing it, forever just because_—_This is the song that never ends, it just goes on and on my friends! . . ._ "

By now most of the Mobians who were of the singing inclination had joined in, creating a rousing and frankly rather discordant chorus of exuberant voices. Silver alone accounted for a full ninety percent of the wrong notes. Shadow glanced at Rouge meaningfully.

"I am not to be held accountable if I return from this camping trip with blood on my hands," he warned. "Or my teeth."

"Oh, I wouldn't worry," said Rouge absent-mindedly. "You're not _that_ clumsy."

Luckily they reached the campsite without significant injury, intentional or otherwise. The site was a lovely little clearing in the woods, with a thick coating of pine needles on the ground and a brook burbling nearby. For a while there was bustle and commotion as everyone helped set up the campfire and pitch the tents.

Tails insisted he wanted to set up a tent all by himself, and set busily to work stretching the canvas into shape and pinning down the corners. The last corner gave him some trouble, so Shadow stepped over to help him drive the stake into the ground.

"Thanks," said Tails, wiping his forehead and smiling cautiously up at Shadow. "And thanks for coming."

"It makes a difference?" said Shadow coolly.

"Well, yeah." Tails started picking up the packaging and tools from the tent. "The more the merrier, you know?" He smiled ruefully. "I wish Maria could have come, though."

Shadow studied him for a moment. He had seen the way Tails looked at Maria sometimes, and he wasn't quite as dim about such matters as you'd think. He had yet to make up his mind what he thought about the situation—let alone find out what Maria thought.

"I'm sure she wishes the same thing," he said at last.

"And I bet you do too, huh?" ventured Tails, starting to unpack cooking utensils from his backpack.

"Perhaps. But it couldn't be helped," shrugged Shadow. "The doctor is unwilling to let Maria so far out of his sight, especially out in the wilderness. He probably suspects that we would try to hide her from him."

"We would though, wouldn't we?" said Tails wryly. Shadow shrugged again and stalked away.

After all the bustle of setup had finally finished, everyone settled down around the campfire and relaxed for a bit. Knuckles knew how to cook over a fire, and Amy knew how to cook actually edible food, so between the two of them it looked like there would be a very palatable stew for dinner.

"Don't forget to save room for hotdogs and s'mores!" said Tails, busily sharpening fresh green sticks to roast hotdogs and marshmallows on. Silver pulled out a small harmonica and began to play a cheerful tune.

"It's so different out here," sighed Amy contentedly, sitting down and leaning back on her hands to gaze upwards. Scraps of twilight filtered here and there through the trees, and small rustling sounds all around hinted at forest creatures beginning or ending their cycles of activity.

"You live like this all the time, don't you Sonic?" Amy continued thoughtfully. "When you're running around the world, sleeping out under the stars . . . "

"Kind of, I guess," shrugged Sonic, scratching his ear. "I usually don't run through the woods, though, so I'm more used to sleepin' in haystacks or on park benches or something."

"Same here," said Knuckles, looking up from poking the fire. "I don't really get what you guys see in sleeping outside. Heck, I do it every night. But on Angel Island there's the shrine, and it's out in the open—at least here we're deep in the woods. It's a nice to get a change of scenery, I guess."

The stew did indeed turn out deliciously, and it disappeared within half an hour. Some of the Mobians started to roast hotdogs, but of course the kids headed straight for the marshmallows.

"Marine, there is such as concept as 'too much of a good thing'," sighed Blaze good-naturedly, as the little raccoon attempted to skewer at least a dozen marshmallows on one stick.

"Not where I come from, mate!" replied Marine firmly, and proceeded to shove the entire mass of sugar fluff into the campfire.

"You come from the same place I . . . " Blaze shook her head and dropped the subject.

"Don't hold your stick so close, it'll catch on fire!" called Charmy.

"I know what I'm doin', thankyuh," retorted Marine loftily.

The marshmallows did indeed catch fire, much to Charmy's amusement. Marine, looking grumpy, waved the stick around until the flames went out, then stubbornly tried to eat the charred marshmallows anyway to make it look like she'd meant to do that. As soon as she took a bite, her eyes lit up.

"Croiky, these are good!" she exclaimed, and began scarfing the entire stick's worth. "They're all soft and gooey on the inside, and the outside's like caramel!"

Pretty soon everyone was deliberately lighting their marshmallows on fire, until there was a threat someone's fur would catch alight from all the burning sticks being waved about.

"So," smirked Rouge, nibbling at a dripping melted marshmallow. "Does this make up for no cake?"

Shadow rolled his eyes stubbornly, but it didn't stop him from going through several more charbroiled marshmallows.

They all stayed up later than their usual bedtimes. The kids kept begging for more scary stories, but at last the older Mobians agreed firmly that they should all go to bed.

"Can we all share a tent?" asked Charmy hopefully. "We'll go right to sleep, we promise!"

"If even two of you are in the same tent, you will not sleep until the wee hours of morning," retorted Silver. "Vector told me about that sleepover you had, Charmy. Something about taking apart a sofa and using the parts to build a tugboat?"

"Awww, he made that up," scoffed Charmy, feeling secure in the fact that Vector had stayed behind to keep an eye on the agency.

"Pleeeeeease let us?" begged Marine. "We wouldn't fight, or talk, or throw pillows or anythin'! Just go roight to sleep, promise, honest!"

"And it's Tails's birthday!" added Charmy pleadingly.

"Heyyyy, that's my call," joked Tails, but glanced hopefully to Sonic. The older Mobians all exchanged dubious looks; they knew that the kids would be whispering and giggling all night if allowed to, or sneaking out of the tent to explore the woods at two in the morning.

"I have a suggestion," said Blaze at length. "I'll stay in the tent as well, and stay up to keep an eye on them."

"All night?!" said Amy, disbelieving.

"Yes, of course." Blaze waved a hand. "It is one of the responsibilities of a princess to learn to fight sleep; the duties of ruling a kingdom often require long hours of vigilance. This will be excellent practice. Besides, even if I do drift off, I sleep very lightly. The slightest motion will wake me."

The kids looked a little disappointed, apparently having been planning some late-night pillow fights after all. However, having Blaze baby-sitting them was still better than having to be split among various tents, so they agreed.

Everyone crept off to bed eventually. The kids unrolled their sleeping bags in one tent, everyone else spread out their own in other tents, Knuckles stretched out by the dying campfire. He swore he'd never be able to sleep in an enclosed space like that.

Silver was one of the last to go to bed. Poking idly at the sizzling campfire embers with a stick, he listened to Knuckles snoring and the occasional firm murmur from the direction of the kids' tent. Blaze was evidently quelling any attempts by the young ones to start a conversation.

It was too bad, reflected Silver glumly. He'd been hoping he could sneak out on a moonlit walk with Blaze himself, maybe take her to climb the nearest mountain or to see the waterfall he heard rushing ever so faintly, far away. The woods were so beautiful at night . . . all the little chirps and rustles and sighs of the forest creatures, melting into a peaceful hum and twining with the sound of breezes in the pine needles. Oh, it would have been so great . . . ahh, well. Perhaps he could still take her to see the sunrise.

Silver at last did crawl off to bed himself. He slept either very lightly or very quickly, because when he awoke it was still dark. Yawning, he squinted blearily at the watch he had brought for the trip, but found it was too dark to see the dial. A quick flash of blue energy from his other hand quickly fixed that. Huh, five AM. Still a good while until the sun rose.

Hoisting himself upright, Silver wiggled out of his sleeping bag and slipped out of the tent, carefully stepping over Sonic and Espio. Outside, last night's campfire was nothing more than cold gray ashes, and the hum of the forest creatures had changed slightly. It was still pitch-dark, but there was somehow already a breathless anticipation of dawn. There was still time to go on a little hike, perhaps find a place to watch the sun rising over the valley . . .

Silver tiptoed past Knuckles, who was huddled back against one of the logs surrounding the campfire, his head pillowed on one of his large mitts. Creeping closer to the kids' tent, Silver halted and called out softly.

"Blaze?"

No reply. Straining his ears, Silver made out the sound of soft breathing. So, she had fallen asleep after all? He tried again.

"Bla-aze . . . "

Still no reply. Silver chuckled silently—apparently Blaze still needed more practice staying awake all night. A mischievous notion struck him: he would slip into the tent very quietly and pounce on her to wake her. Sure, she might singe his nose a little if sufficiently surprised, but it'd be worth it . . .

Biting back a grin, Silver moved to ever so slowly open the tent flap.

Minutes later, everyone leaped awake at a terrified cry that pierced the night and sent them all scrambling out of the tents. Silver was standing by the campfire ring, his eyes wild.

"Wake up! Everyone _wake up!_ Something's wrong!"


	7. Ready, Set, Dark

A deathly silence hung over the campsite. All available lamps and flashlights had been lit, and the kids' tent had been opened as wide as it could. Down the back of the tent, where there should have been a canvas wall, was a long jagged gash in the fabric.

The children were still in their sleeping bags, seemingly asleep, but Tails was frozen in an odd position, as if he had tried to climb out and fallen asleep in the midst of doing so. Blaze was still seated, but bent over, one hand on her heart and the other pressed over her mouth, her eyes tightly shut. Amy was shaking Cream gently, but the little rabbit made no move.

"I already tried," said Silver desperately. "Nothing wakes them! It's like living death!"

"But they are not asleep," said Espio, crouching at Charmy's side. "Their bodies are not relaxed, but incredibly tense. They are paralyzed."

"Paralyzed—but—but—why?"

"I do not know. Perhaps shock, perhaps venom, perhaps even a nerve-pressure attack."

There was another chilling silence.

"Something's got to wake them!" blurted Knuckles. "They're alive, they're breathing, there are no marks on them—something's got to wake them up!"

"We could try," said Espio, his face troubled. "But don't go to extreme lengths; we still do not know their condition fully."

"Just—just shake them, just try a little harder," pleaded Silver, kneeling by Marine's side.

Espio bit his lip and bowed his head silently, giving his permission to try. The others looked on as Silver shook Marine's shoulder, first gently, then harder, becoming more and more desperate.

"Wake up, wake up!" he cried, hoisting the little raccoon upright and pinching hard on her ear, shaking her violently now.

Suddenly, ever so slightly, Marine's eyelids twitched. Then she twitched all over, and ever so slowly opened her eyes.

Then she started to scream.

It was horrifying to watch; Marine's eyes were wild and unseeing, locked straight ahead, her whole body shook, her arms and legs flailed violently, as if she was fighting off the creatures of her nightmares. She beat furiously to get away from Silver's grasp, struck him backwards, threw herself to the ground and rolled over, still screaming and wrestling with some invisible demon, clawing at the air and the ground.

At last, her eyes slid shut again, her screams tapered off to whimpers, her body shook violently one last time and fell still again. The onlookers stood, petrified.

"God," said Shadow at last.

Normally someone would have told him to watch it, but at this moment they felt there was nothing else _to_ say. Silver, still flung back onto his hands where Marine had thrown him, looked ready to cry.

"Fear," said Espio, his jaw tight. "They're paralyzed with fear."

"But _what?_" demanded Amy, biting back tears. "What could scare them li-ike . . . l-like . . . "

"Whatever it was," said Espio quietly, "it was intelligent."

Mutely the others looked at him. He waved towards the slit canvas at the back of the tent.

"It knew to slice the back rather than disturb Blaze by coming through the front," he said. "And I have already tried to track it. All I can find is signs that it covered its tracks upon retreating. That's intelligence on our level."

"What is it?" whispered Amy. "What is it?"

"It couldn't have gone far," said Rouge suddenly. Everyone turned to look at her.

"I was up at around three in the morning," she said, and nobody bothered to ask her why. "Everything was normal then."

"I woke up at five," said Silver. "That's still two hours."

"All the same, whatever it was, it probably lives in the woods here," said Espio, standing up. "We must find it."

"And do _what?_ Look what it did to _them!_ To _Blaze!_" Knuckles gestured. "They became paralyzed with fear just by _looking_ at it, what kind of a creature is it?"

"It doesn't matter," said Sonic, his eyes uncharacteristically haunted as he gazed at Tails' frozen expression. "Espio's right, we have to find it."

The faintest murmur of consent ran among the Mobians, laced with determination and hints of anger. Whatever this creature was, it had messed with the wrong crew. Shadow stayed behind for a moment as the others drifted away, and glanced one last time at the rigid forms of the four children and their chaperone.

Selfish as it felt, he was eternally grateful that Maria hadn't come along.

As the slightest hints of gray began to show in the eastern sky, the chilly air of the campsite suddenly babbled with tense activity. Rouge paced back and forth, trying to place a call through the G.U.N. cell phone she'd brought and cursing the limited service out here in the wilds. Omega's fear-proof presence would be useful; he'd have to break his way through the forest pretty violently, but that was irrelevant just now. He set out as quickly as he could, and notified the rest of G.U.N. that a situation in need of broader attention may possibly arise soon.

As soon as Rouge was done with the phone, Espio called Vector about Charmy, and Vanilla about Cream. He hung up looking like he'd just been drained of all will to live. Meanwhile Shadow tersely organized the search. Knuckles was to stay behind and guard the children and Blaze, in case the creature came back. Everyone else was to head out into the woods; it would have been better if they could stay in pairs, but there was just too much ground to cover. They were all warned to exercise extreme caution—this creature evidently inspired some pretty intense fear in those who saw it. The searchers' only defense, hopefully, was that they expected it. They all set out from the point where Espio could no longer follow the covered tracks.

Shadow, Espio, and Rouge regrouped half an hour later at the campsite. Knuckles was curled up on the ground, an expression of rigid horror on his face. Those still standing surveyed him silently, too grim for words. To scare Knuckles into shock—that wasn't even imaginable.

Silver returned to the campsite shortly after, having found nothing. Then, two minutes later, Sonic came stumbling out of the woods carrying Amy's unconscious body. Even in paralytic shock, she was still huddling against him, her breath coming in soft whimpers as if she was having the worst of nightmares.

"I found her like this," Sonic whispered, swaying, his eyes glassy. "Just . . . just frozen like this. Something got her, and—and I—"

"Shhh," said Rouge gently, helping Sonic set Amy down. "It's not your fault, Blue."

"It's still out there," said Shadow, glancing darkly out at the woods. "It's trying to pick us off, one by one. We can't just leave the unconscious here unguarded, but any guard we leave will get attacked. We've got to get out of here."

The others nodded numbly. Espio laid a hand on Sonic's shoulder as he was getting up.

"Sonic—did you see any tracks, any signs of struggle, anything, around the area where you found Amy?"

Sonic shook his head.

"I can't remember. I wasn't exactly checking, you know."

Espio nodded in understanding.

"Do you think you could lead me to the place, though? If I can find the creature's footprints or some other evidence, perhaps we could identify it or better track it. That would be the first step to curing the others."

Sonic nodded eagerly, turning back towards the woods.

"Sure, I can take you there. Come on, we've gotta go quickly."

"We'll get the others ready for carrying back home," said Rouge, pulling down one of the tents and ripping the fabric to start forming a sling.

Sonic and Espio loped off into the forest. Shadow, Rouge, and Silver worked silently, bundling up the fallen, trying to figure out ways to make carrying all of them possible. They were done with the job, and Espio and Sonic still hadn't returned.

The three of them said nothing, but met each other's eyes silently.

At last they left Silver behind to guard, perched high in a tree, and set out to find Sonic and Espio. Rouge went one way, Shadow the other.

Shadow at last found Espio slumped against a tree, one hand grasping for the shurikens in his wrist protector, the other frozen in front of him as if to fend something off. He was shaking all over in terror, while a gash on his palm dribbled a thin sheet of coagulating blood. Sonic was nowhere to be found.

"Dammit," whispered Shadow, and crouched to examine the ground. There were signs of struggle, and it looked like something had been dragged off.

Cursing under his breath, Shadow hoisted the trembling Espio up and carried him back to the campsite. Silver was still all in one piece; he watched with dull eyes as Shadow tossed Espio down alongside the ever-growing group of paralyzed Mobians.

"It's just you, me, and Rouge now," said Shadow quietly. "It's got Sonic."

"Y-you mean he's . . . " Silver faltered.

"I don't know," said Shadow. "It seems probable though, doesn't it?"

Silver raked a hand through his quills silently, his eyes roving over his friends, all trapped in deathlike sleep.

"This is a nightmare, isn't it?" he said dully. "We'll wake up in a minute and wonder what brought _that_ on, and by tomorrow we'll have forgotten it. Right?"

"No."

In the lifeless silence that followed, the G.U.N. cell phone rang loud and sharp. Shadow snatched it up, expecting a call from Rouge. His eyebrows twitched upwards slightly when he saw the call was from Omega's built-in communicator instead.

"Omega?" he called, flipping the phone open. "Where are you?"

"I am approaching the coordinates you gave me," replied Omega. "I found it necessary to stop, however, as I found Rouge."

Silver's eyes lifted from the ground and met Shadow's hopelessly, both of them knowing what was to follow.

"Stay here, guard them," said Shadow, and took off into the woods.

"Don't move her," he ordered over the cell phone. "I'm coming over."

"Haste would be appreciated," said Omega, his robotic voice oddly strained. "She seems to be losing fluid."

"Losing fluid," scoffed Shadow, snappish with despair. "For all _that_ tells me, she could have a runny nose."

"I had assumed you had the mental capacity to understand," retorted Omega tightly, equally tense. Shadow drew a deep breath and pawed at his forehead.

"I know. I know. Is it bad?"

"It appears to be. I have attempted everything I can, and she will not stop crying."

Shadow nearly crashed into a tree.

"For the love of all things—I thought she was _bleeding_, you—"

A silence on the other end of the line. Shadow leaned against the tree he'd nearly hit and ran a mental diagnostic on his circulatory system.

"My apologies," said Omega at last.

"Yeah, yeah. Sure." Pushing himself upright, Shadow set off full-speed again.

When he finally found Omega, the robot was leaning over Rouge, who was huddled underneath a tree. Like all others before her, her eyes were squeezed shut, and her body was tense with fear. Tears were seeping steadily from under her eyelids, while her wings wrapped instinctively around her shoulders and her hands clenched around the red Chaos Emerald. Apparently her three AM excursion had not been in vain, and apparently, even in the depths of terror, her instinct was to seek comfort from jewels.

But then again, reflected Shadow, there hadn't been anything or anyone else to turn to.

"Is she damaged?" asked Omega, his red eyes glowing anxiously as he watched Shadow crouch next to the shivering bat.

"No more than any of the others," said Shadow grimly. He tried to gently pry the Chaos Emerald from Rouge's grip, but her fingers refused to loosen from the gem. When Shadow tried with a little more force, she began to twitch and shift slightly in her sleep. He stopped immediately, not wanting to re-experience what had happened to Marine.

"There's nothing for it," he sighed at last, looking up at Omega. "Take her back to the campsite, all right? I want to do some searching around here for a minute."

"Is there a method to undo this condition?"

Shadow spread his hands silently. Omega said nothing for a moment.

"This is all very wrong," he said heavily at last.

Shadow nodded. As far as he knew, Omega was not physically capable of registering fear, but that didn't mean he was immune to situations like these. Being a robot, he had very fixated sense of what was logical, and a burning dislike for anything that violated this sense of logic. He'd probably never gain a sense of humor; even the lighthearted illogic of jokes made him uneasy and irritable. This kind of thing . . . well, it was a wonder he wasn't having a system meltdown.

Then again, Shadow wondered why they weren't all insane by now. What in the world had happened? Twelve hours ago, everything had been normal, even excessively giddy, what with all the fuss over Tails's birthday. Then the world had suddenly come toppling down in pieces around their ears, and one by one they fell with it, each loss sinking them deeper into the darkness of fear. Silver was right; this was a living nightmare.

He wondered briefly if Silver had succumbed yet. As little affection as he harbored for the younger hedgehog, he hoped that the kid was still unharmed. Not that he needed company or anything, just . . . this soon? Already? . . .

Shadow shook himself from his thoughts to find Omega cautiously waving his hand in Rouge's general vicinity.

"What's the matter now?"

"It will not harm her to pick her up?" asked Omega, somehow plaintively lost. Shadow sighed and got to his feet. Stepping over, he carefully scooped Rouge up and turned to Omega.

"Go on, hold out your arm." He transferred Rouge gingerly to crook of the robot's elbow. "There. Now take her to the campsite, and radio me if something's happened to Silver. If he's still fine, help him guard the others. I'll be over in a minute. Just keep it together, all right? We're going to get G.U.N. involved if we have to, we're going to track down this creature, and we're going to figure out how to wake the others up again. No problem, you know?"

Omega gave him a look that let him know he was an ineffective liar. Still, he didn't complain out loud. Optimism was _not_ something one took lightly, coming from Shadow. He was doing his best.

As Omega turned to plow doggedly off through the underbrush towards the campsite, Shadow stepped back to the area where the ground was scuffed and trampled. He wished Espio was still on his own two feet; he'd probably be able to glance at this mess and tell how many creatures there'd been, how many feet they walked on, their shoe size, height, gender, and what they had for breakfast in the morning. All Shadow could discern were Omega's deep-set tridactyl footprints, and then a welter of disturbed pine needles.

Suddenly in the distance, there came a rapid thudding of footsteps, muffled on the peaty forest floor, but unmistakable. Shadow's head shot up, his eyes wide—only Sonic ran that fast.

He barely had time to register this thought before Sonic himself came flashing past, weaving skillfully through the trees. Apparently he noticed Shadow as he passed, because he suddenly hit the brakes and came skittering back.

"Shads!" he called, wild-eyed. "What the heck is going on?!"

"I could ask you the same thing," said Shadow. He got to his feet and looked Sonic up and down disbelievingly. "Where _were_ you?"

"I have no freaking clue," said Sonic, tugging at his quills. "All I know is, I was out with Espio, looking for the place where I found Amy, and suddenly something conks me on the head. Then I wake up somewhere in the woods just a little while ago, and I've been running around trying to find out where I am for ages now!" His face grew grimmer. "Is Espio okay? What about everyone else?"

"Everyone else is gone," said Shadow flatly. "Only Silver and I are still standing. Omega's arrived, if that's any consolation. We need to get the unconscious out of the woods and back home."

Sonic nodded absently, raking a hand through his quills. He was clearly trying not to look too broken up.

"All of them?" he asked, as if he wasn't sure he'd heard right. "All gone?"

"All attacked, by whatever it is," said Shadow. "Come on, unless you can make sense of these tracks, we'd better get back and start carrying everyone out of here."

Jerking his head to indicate which way to follow, he set out towards the campsite. Sonic swung into step behind him.

"But what if you don't make it back?" he asked thickly.

"What kind of a question is—" Shadow drew in his breath sharply as a searing pain shot through his shoulder. He wheeled around, irate. "What the hell are you—"

The rest of his sentence went entirely forgotten.


	8. The Secret Side of Me

Whatever it was that stood before Shadow right now, it wasn't Sonic. Not in any normal sense. The red shoes were still there, but the hedgehog's fur had turned a darker blue, almost navy. His quills had grown longer, shaggier, sharper-looking, his build was stockier, and his posture had shifted slightly forward, as if he longed to walk on all fours. Something about his face had changed; it was narrower and longer, with something unmistakably cruel in the darkening of the eyes. Bloodshot veins lined the edges of his eyeballs, his ears were laid sharply back, his fangs bared, and on every fingertip sprouted a long, thin, dagger-like claw.

As Shadow stood and stared silently at this abomination, it began to look troubled, eyeing him up and down. Suddenly one of the clawed hands flashed through the air, and the sharp nails sank into the front of Shadow's shoulder. Reflexively he fired a Chaos Spear at him—it—whatever-it-was. The Chaos energy was enough to knock a normal Mobian out, but whatever-it-was merely stumbled back slightly, snarling.

Again the claws drove forward, this time stabbing for Shadow's face. He knocked them aside and kicked Sonic back, charging a Chaos Spear warningly in one hand.

Sonic's transformation seemed to have cost him some speed, but he could still dodge energy bolts plenty fast enough. He and Shadow circled around each other menacingly, lunging, attacking, parrying, dodging. Shadow hardly held back on the force of his Chaos Spears, but he didn't have to; they seemed to have little to no effect on this creature.

Meanwhile, he quickly realized that something was strange about Sonic's fighting method. Those claws could have ripped Shadow open in an instant if they were used properly, but instead of slashing and swiping, Sonic merely stabbed, over and over. It was not very effective, and he seemed to be growing more and more frustrated with time, bordering on desperate.

Grateful that he was still holding the green and cyan Chaos Emeralds for power, Shadow fired off another spear. It struck, but again did little more than toss Sonic back slightly. Again the claws came plunging towards Shadow's eyeline, this time from both hands. Gritting his teeth, he threw up his arms to block and let the sharp points catch the back of his forearm. He twisted free quickly, managed to seize Sonic's fingers for just the slightest moment, and forced them upwards so he could see them.

Sure enough, the tips of the claws were hollow, brimming with a clear yellowish liquid.

Several things fell into place at once. There was no time to waste. Shadow pushed a snarling Sonic back, drove a Chaos Spear into his chest for good measure, and shouted "Chaos Control!" Just as he winked out of existence, he heard a strangled roar of rage from the creature he had been fighting.

Silver gave a startled cry as Shadow suddenly materialized in the campsite, still bleeding from some of his puncture wounds. Luckily, none of them were severe enough to cause him to leave any body parts behind while Chaos Controlling; most of them were even starting to heal over, in the general Ultimate fashion.

"What the—Shadow, what happened?!" called Silver, jumping down from his guard perch.

Ignoring all inquiries, Shadow lunged over to the paralyzed Mobians and tumbled Knuckles over, ripping off the tent-canvas sling they had put around the echidna. Crouching, he began to rapidly examine the underside of Knuckles' chin and arms, the back of his head, the skin under the cuff of his glove.

"What are you _doing?_" demanded Silver, as Omega eyed this strange spectacle dubiously. Shadow merely gave a short sharp "Ah!" of satisfaction as he found what he was looking for, inside the cuff of Knuckles' sock. Swiftly he moved on to Rouge, and began examining the backs of her ears.

Silver and Omega looked at each other, wondering if the stress had actually caused Shadow to snap. Cautiously, Silver edged over to Knuckles and rolled back the top of the sock, wondering if he'd see anything. His eyes widened—there were four small, neat punctures, side-by-side in the skin that the sock used to cover.

"All of them," announced Shadow, plunking down and surveying the unconscious Mobians darkly. "They're all marked like that, all in places where you wouldn't notice the wound—Amy under her quills, Tails under the chest-ruff, Blaze by that fluffy cuff on her wrist. Only Espio has a visible wound—he must have tried to fight back, and it had to slash wherever it could."

"'It'? What?" asked Silver, tensing. "What's been attacking them?"

"Sonic."

Silver stared at him blankly.

"Something's happened to him," said Shadow, nodding back into the woods. "He can transform into some kind of horrific monster at will, and he's apparently been sneaking up and attacking everyone who's left alone. He even faked his own kidnapping."

"But why?"

"You tell me." Shadow's ears twitched up suddenly, and his head turned towards some distant sound that Silver could not yet hear.

"It's coming," he said tersely, clambering to his feet. "Probably trying to find me. Omega, don't shoot, we can't kill it. It still _is_ Sonic, I think."

"But—" Silver choked off as Sonic, still in his monstrous transformation, came bursting from the woods. Despite the order not to fire, Omega's gatling guns clicked sharply into place, his arm snapping into a ready position.

For a moment all was silent. The breeze humming through the pine needles became suddenly loud, and the whistling of distant birds mixed strangely with Sonic's grating breath. Silver stood frozen in utter disbelief, his hands paused halfway to a defensive position, while Shadow narrowed his eyes in challenge, daring this fiendish version of Sonic to make a move.

It did. Straight for Silver. Crying out, Silver seized the creature with his psychokinesis and hurled it back against a tree. Groaning, it shook out its head and snarled, staggering to its feet. Silver was about to repeat the treatment when Shadow suddenly lunged in a blur of motion, grabbed Silver by the wrist, and took off.

"Wh-wha—hey! HEY!" protested Silver, stumbling as Shadow's much faster pace forced him into a blinding run.

"Omega, standby, guard them!" Shadow bellowed over his shoulder, as Sonic launched himself after the two fleeing hedgehogs.

"What's going on?! Why are we running away?" snapped Silver, trying to shake his arm free. "We have to fight that thing!"

"No, we have to lead it back to civilization before we knock it out!" Shadow growled, his eyes fixed ahead as he wove swiftly between the trees. "We need to run tests on that stuff coming from his claws, that's what causes the shock reaction."

Silver finally yanked free, tripped, and tumbled smoothly into the air, his psychokinesis activating with a sharp electronic-sounding wail.

"But what if—"

"Look out!" barked Shadow, shoving Silver off to one side just before a dagger-sharp handful of claws swiped millimeters away from his leg. "Don't let him stab you! I'm immune, but I doubt you'd be. Pick up the pace!"

Silver boosted ahead grimly as the tails of flame on Shadow's jet skates lengthened, hissing sparks and kicking up sprays of pine needles. Twigs slapped and scratched at both of them as they shot ahead, ever faster, dodging trees blindly, listening to the snarls and crashes of the monster plowing through the underbrush behind them.

"It's going to be rough," warned Shadow abruptly. "We're dealing with a deranged version of Sonic that's vicious, cunning, and immune to my Chaos attacks, we're dealing with what it's done to everyone else, and that's not even counting whatever it was that turned Sonic into _that_ in the first place. It could do the same to us." His gaze flicked to Silver sharply. "Are you frightened?"

Silver winced, but found he couldn't lie under Shadow's blood-red scrutiny.

"Yes."

"Hmh." Shadow turned his attention back to the path before them. "Not nearly frightened enough."

Silver bit his lip and glanced back silently. Then he looked back to Shadow, uneasy.

". . . What if he changes his mind about chasing us? What if he goes back to the others?"

"Don't worry," muttered Shadow. "Now that we've seen his transformation and lived to talk about it, he'll follow us to Tartarus and back."


	9. Hid Under Lock and Key

By the time the two hedgehogs broke out of the woods and approached civilization again, Silver was exhausted. His psychokinesis didn't last forever, and he got more and more tired the longer he used it. Shadow had been pushing them both at an exhausting pace, so much that even his own breath was starting to come a little raggedly. The creature behind them seemed to be tiring as well, but it still looked plenty murderous.

"Head for G.U.N. HQ," rasped Shadow, jerking his head in the correct direction. Silver nodded and set his teeth grimly. Just as they approached the chain-link fence and dark blocky building that was G.U.N.'s main base, the young hedgehog suddenly spasmed erratically. The cyan glow around his body flickered, hissed oddly, and died, sending him crashing to the ground. At the speed he had been flying, he hit with a fair amount of force and tumbled hard, his shoulder plowing up a trail of dirt and pebbles. Shadow noticed and tried to stop, but his velocity carried him into a long skidding brake, and he still pulled far ahead of where Silver had fallen.

"Ugh . . . " Silver groaned, feeling his shoulder and ribs wailing as he rolled gingerly over and tried to sit up.

Except a pair of bloodshot eyes were mere inches from his own.

Gasping, Silver threw up a hand, but his palm only flashed feebly blue before dying out. A handful of claws whisked into his vision, plunging straight for his throat—

There was a dull thwack, and Sonic tumbled back, roaring with fury and pawing at his head where Shadow had landed a fist.

"Idiot," said Shadow impatiently, stepping over Silver and approaching the creature. "Don't just lie there, get to safety! Without your psychokinesis, you're helpless."

"I'll get it back in a moment," panted Silver, sitting up and leaning on one hand. "Just a—just a minute of rest."

"Just stay out of my way," growled Shadow, then hissed in pain as Sonic's claws suddenly swiped across his chest.

"He's learned to slash," he remarked drily, and drove a fist at the creature's forehead again. Recoiling, Sonic snarled and feinted, trying to break through Shadow's defenses.

"His skull seems to be even thicker than usual, too," continued Shadow, leaping away from a swipe and landing a kick to the side of Sonic's head. "This should have knocked him out by now, several times over."

"Couldn't we just throw him down a ravine or something?" called Silver desperately.

"It'd be preferable not to kill him or overly damage him. I'm assuming that if we wreck his brain or his spinal cord now, it'll stay damaged if and when he transforms back."

Silver bit his lip, watching Shadow and his fiendish opponent chivvying each other back and forth, plowing up trails in the dirt with their feet. Sonic was still immune to Chaos Spears and barely even noticed the burns he got from Chaos Blasts, but he seemed to grow more and more cunning with practice. The long claws flashed back and forth, leaving thin bleeding trails wherever they contacted, forcing Shadow to dodge back again and again. Noticing Shadow was preoccupied with avoiding his hands, Sonic lashed out with one foot instead, kicking him in the knee and then plowing him into the ground.

Shadow wasn't over-fond of ground brawling; he worked much better on his feet. Twisting over, he aimed a blow at Sonic's jaw, but it barely had an effect. Again he struck out—again nothing. Snarling softly, Sonic grabbed Shadow's arm and forced it to his chest, planting a foot on his other hand to immobilize both arms. Then, before Shadow could throw him off, he ever-so-lightly laid a handful of claws on Shadow's jugular vein.

For a while neither combatant moved, nor so much as twitched. They were both breathing deeply and raggedly, Sonic's knee resting heavily on Shadow's chest, his bloodshot eyes boring through him. There was an unmistakable desire to kill brimming in that wild look; his claws stroked gently up and down Shadow's throat, as if searching for the perfect place to sink in. Shadow tensed ever so slowly, hoping that he could strike lightning-fast and catch Sonic off-guard . . .

"_Hya!_" cried a voice out of the blue. There was a sudden crash_,_ and Sonic seemed to vanish. Bolting upright, Shadow found his opponent buried beneath a stack of chain-link fence segments, looking to be out cold. He turned around and saw Silver, a little out of breath, but smiling grimly.

"Told you I'd get it back," he remarked, flicking a cyan spark from between his fingers. He looked Shadow up and down. "Gosh. Are you okay?"

Shadow glanced down at himself and grimaced. Most of the scratches he'd received had already closed, and they'd heal fully within a day or two, but he was still pretty badly bloodied up at the moment. When he'd warned that he'd be returning from the camping trip with blood on his hands, he hadn't meant it to be literal.

"I'm fine," he said, nodding tersely for way of thanks. Silver nodded back and turned his attention to Sonic, levitating the metal segments off him slightly.

"I kinda tore up the chain-link fence," he explained. "Sorry, but I thought it might be useful for making a cage. Is G.U.N. going to be mad?"

"They'll get over it," shrugged Shadow. "We've got better cages on the grounds, though. Use them for holding animals when we break up illegal exotic-pet rings."

Catching hold of Sonic's ankles, he began to drag the unconscious creature through the demolished part of the chain-link fence. Some security guards were already starting to flock over from various locales, but Shadow gave them all warning looks and jerked his head for Silver to follow. Knowing that Shadow did not take security lightly, the guards understood that something serious was afoot and left both of them alone—although there were plenty of curious glances cast Sonic's way.

A smaller building stood slightly away from the main hulk of HQ. Shadow headed for it, kicked open the door, and dragged Sonic through. Following cautiously, Silver found himself in a room full of massive cages, made with thick iron bars and loops. Shadow had already tossed Sonic into the nearest one, and was now fumbling with a keyring full of keys, trying to find the right one to lock the gate.

"So," said Silver quietly. "What do we do now?"

"Test him, obviously," said Shadow. "We have a forensics and chemical analysis unit here."

"And they'll know how to fix it?" asked Silver anxiously. Shadow shrugged, not looking up. Finding the right key, he flung the others aside and stepped into the cage with Sonic, who was still quite thoroughly out of it. Producing a small vial, he grabbed one of Sonic's claws and tapped it against the glass, trying to shake out some of the sickly-looking liquid he had seen earlier. No matter how much he shook and tapped, however, not a drop fell out.

"Dammit," muttered Shadow, testing one of the claws gingerly to see if it would break. "He seems to retract the venom or something when he's unconscious."

"Either that or it just doesn't come out on its own," remarked Silver, leaning against the outside of the cage. "What about your blood?"

"What about it?" Shadow looked up keenly.

"Well, the poison seems to act by entering the bloodflow, right? And he's stabbed and slashed you so many times that you must have a pint of it in you by now. Couldn't they just test your bloodstream to see if there's anything unusual in it?"

Shadow nodded. The thought had crossed his mind too, but he was still impressed that Silver had come up with the same idea. When all was said and done, being stuck with Silver as last man standing actually wasn't as bad as he'd have thought.

"Let's go then," he said, getting up. Sonic started to growl and twitch at that moment, and when Shadow slammed the gate he bolted to his feet and roared. Silver gasped slightly as the creature hurled itself against the wall of the cage, hissing and clawing at the bars, seeking gaps through which it could sink its claws into flesh.

Meanwhile Shadow quietly locked the gate and cast the slathering creature a grim look.

"Wouldn't recognize him as Sonic, huh?" said Silver weakly.

"I would say this was an improvement, but I don't joke," retorted Shadow, heading for the door. "Hurry up, would you? You have to stay with me, or the security people will snip your head off."

Silver glanced back at the growling creature in the cage one last time, shook his head grimly, and hurried off after Shadow.


	10. The Scientist

**A/N: Friday update! Woo. I really hope I don't run out of buffer chapters, though. ^_^'' Always something else going on, and I've been dabbling in writing some other fics too. **

* * *

In the forensics lab, Silver watched as an agent in a lab coat drew a brilliantly red tubule of blood from Shadow's arm.

"We're going to have to compare this against the stock sample of your regular blood," explained the scientist. "Just give me a minute to find the data."

"Do all G.U.N. agents have stock blood samples?" asked Silver curiously.

"Most of them, yeah," said Shadow, disdainfully tossing aside the bandage he'd been offered. "Everyone has unique antibodies and hormone levels and blood type and such, so most agents have a small blood sample electronically documented in case the lab has to test for diseases or poisons later. Or identify their bodies." He rolled his eyes when Silver winced. "Besides, my blood is weird anyway. It's got a lot of Black Arms alien junk in it, so they need to know what it looks like normally if they ever want to find what's wrong with it—like now."

"Found the data!" called the scientist from across the room, hunching over an ancient-looking desktop computer. "Just let me run a few scans on this new sample now, and test for any new substances present."

"Take your time, Alf," said Shadow resignedly. "We need reliable data."

"How long will it take?" asked Silver, fiddling with his fingers anxiously.

"About half an hour, maybe. Feel free to look around, but don't touch stuff," said Alf.

Silver, taking the invitation, began to prowl cautiously around the lab and peer at all the machinery and chemical vials. Shadow had seen all of this before, so he continued to sit on the lab bench where he'd been perched for his blood sample. Still, he watched Silver with one eye, vaguely diverted by the younger hedgehog's fascination with lab equipment.

Silver eventually wandered over to the part of the room where the lab drawers were, each labelled with the name of the agent it belonged to. He paused, running his eyes over the various names idly. Shadow braced for the inevitable question, and sure enough it came:

"Rouge?" Silver looked over, his eyebrows raised. "_Rouge_ is a—"

"Forensics agent, yes," said Shadow wearily. "In her spare time. It's extra pay, and she was good at it. She never used that drawer very much though, she usually worked at home."

There was a pause.

"Don't use past tense," said Silver quietly. Shadow grunted and stood up.

"Whatever. I'm going to clean up while we're waiting, dried blood itches."

"Probably shouldn't run around looking like that anyway," said Silver ruefully.

"This?" Shadow was already halfway out the door. "In G.U.N., this is nothing."

He returned fifteen minutes later, blood-free and with slightly tousled quills; Silver couldn't help but notice that his shoes were as wet as the rest of him. Apparently Shadow really did keep them on at all times, even while showering. Before Silver could comment, Alf came back from the scanner, looking grim.

"There's nothing wrong with your blood," he announced.

"Nothing?" Shadow looked up at him disbelievingly.

"I tested for everything. There's nothing in there that isn't normally in there."

Shadow and Silver looked at each other for a moment.

"Maybe it's the antibodies," said Shadow at last. "I have antibodies that work quickly against poison. They may have destroyed all of it before the test was performed."

"Maybe . . . " said Silver cautiously. "But then, what do we do now?"

Shadow got up, sighing.

"Let me try to milk some poison out of that idiot again, now that he's awake. Wait here a minute."

He disappeared out the door. Alf leaned against a lab bench and watched uneasily as Silver paced back and forth, chewing on the tips of his fingers. Tension hummed thickly in the silent air.

About fifteen minutes later, Shadow came storming back in with a freshly oozing gash across his muzzle.

"There," he said, scraping a handful of blood off his face and slapping it into an empty petri dish. "Test that. Even my antibodies don't work that fast."

Silver cast him a look of mixed horror and admiration.

"Did you—"

"No, it was his idea," said Shadow drily.

Alf ran another series of tests, which went a little faster this time since the necessary equipment was all warmed up already.

"Still nothing," he said quietly.

Silver sank his head into his hands, while Shadow swore roundly.

"What kind of forensics do you call this? There's a poison in there that sends people into instantaneous paralytic shock, and you're telling me you can't find it?!"

Alf shook his head helplessly. Silver looked up.

"The Black Arms alien stuff," he said suddenly.

"What?" growled Shadow.

"You said you had a lot of weird stuff in your blood," said Silver. "What if the poison Sonic's using is one of those things only _you _have in your blood? What if that's why you're immune to it?"

Shadow processed this for a moment. Then he turned to Alf.

"He has a point. What things are there in my blood that wouldn't be in someone else's?"

"A lot," said Alf, looking over a printout.

"Specifically then," said Shadow impatiently. "Is there anything in my blood that, if it got into someone else's blood, would make them feel really frightened?"

"Let me see . . . " Alf squinted at the finely printed text. "Well, there is an aldehyde-derived molecule that you seem to carry in high levels. Quite rare. In normal people, it binds to receptors in the fear center of the brain, triggering intense but unreasoning terror."

"That's it!" said Shadow, his eyes glinting victoriously.

"But then why aren't you terrified all the time?" asked Silver. "If you have it in your blood non-stop."

"That's a good question," said Alf, scratching his chin. "I would guess that the receptors in your brain are either non-existent, or so constantly saturated by the chemical that your brain no longer responds to the signal."

"You mean . . . he literally _can't_ feel fear?" said Silver, his eyes wide.

"Sounds about right," said Shadow smugly, already heading for the door. "Come on, we have work to do."


	11. Wake Me Up

They hit the G.U.N. databases, researching the chemical in question. The information they found was heartening—the substance was in fact being currently researched as a relatively harmless measure of crowd control or suspect immobilization. Once it entered the body, it would remain in effect until it was broken down naturally by enzymes—about eight hours.

Shadow checked the time. Assuming that Blaze and the children had been stabbed with the poison just before five AM, it was a healthy seven and a half hours ago already.

They radioed Omega and asked him if there'd been any development since they'd left; he reported some faint stirrings among the kids, but nothing significant. Shadow warned him that those coming out of shock would probably still be extremely terrified and panicky, which seemed to make Omega a little panicky himself. He hadn't the faintest clue how to deal with terrified children.

"Keep your head on straight, we'll be coming over in no time," said Shadow. "We just need to gather some equipment."

"The straightness of my head is hardly a factor in this situation," retorted Omega bitterly. "I am not to be held accountable if these small organics suffer emotional trauma."

"Well they'd be more traumatized if your head was on crooked now, wouldn't they?" said Shadow.

". . . What?"

"Stand by, we'll be seeing you," said Shadow calmly, hanging up and taking off down the hall at a rapid stride.

"I thought you said you didn't joke," Silver called, jogging after him.

"I don't."

They gathered up a few syringes of tranquilizer, which the databases said would be useful for calming the leftover terror caused by the chemical. G.U.N. didn't have too much spare tranquilizer lying around, and they wanted to avoid using it if possible anyway, but they would really need Tails to have a calm head on his shoulders. It would probably be up to him to figure out how to cure Sonic.

On an impulse, Silver darted to the kitchen by the rec room and came back carrying a box full of grilled-cheese sandwiches.

"Seriously?" said Shadow.

"It's a comfort food," retorted Silver. "There's nothing more calming than a grilled-cheese sandwich."

Rolling his eyes, Shadow checked to make sure all his scratches had closed, grabbed Silver by the arm, and shouted "Chaos Control!"

They materialized at the edge of the campsite, which was now bathed in a delicious patchwork of speckled midday light, filtering in through the pine branches, dancing on the forest floor, and kicking up a soft woodsy smell. It looked like a good place for hope.

"Here we are," remarked Shadow, striding over to the still-unconscious Mobians.

"I continue to insist that my head is not crooked," grumbled Omega.

"Don't listen to him," said Silver soothingly, setting down the box of sandwiches. "We're going to wake them up in no time Omega, and they'll be fine."

"We should probably go in order," said Shadow, deftly preparing a syringe of tranquilizer. "The children and Blaze were first, then Knuckles and Amy, then Espio, then Rouge. I'm going to give Tails a minimum dose of the tranquilizer and see if that doesn't wake him up a little faster. You can try to wake Blaze or the other kids by hand meanwhile, if you want to."

Silver hung back a moment, watching as Shadow carefully injected a bit of clear fluid into Tails' shoulder.

"Wake up kid," said Shadow, flicking the little fox's ear. "All the way, now."

Tails twitched erratically, groaning. His eyes slid open—Silver held his breath, and maybe Shadow did too—and suddenly Tails was sitting bolt upright, his eyes wild, his breath shallow and fast, his tails bristling. He looked around frantically, shaking with terror, but he didn't scream or panic nearly as badly as Marine had.

"Take it easy, kid," said Shadow evenly. "It's fine. Nothing's going to hurt you." He stiffened as Tails suddenly latched onto him, still shivering. "Hey now—"

"Go easy on him, Shads," advised Silver. Shadow shook his head and glanced meaningfully at the tranquilizer, but on the other hand they didn't want Tails loopy and loose-limbed either. He tried to remember how he'd seen Sonic comforting the little fox during thunderstorms, but couldn't recall anything of use; in the end he settled for patiently sitting still and letting Tails cling to him as needed.

"S-s-sorry," Tails managed between chattering teeth, evidently realizing that he was creating an awkward situation. "I d-don't know why . . . I'm . . . sooooo . . . "

"It's a chemical poison," said Shadow, patting Tails on the shoulder gingerly. "It'll wear off eventually."

Meanwhile, Blaze was starting to stir and tremble slightly. Silver bolted over to her side and gathered her into his arms, murmuring soothingly into her ear. She gained consciousness slowly, but was soon tense and wide-eyed, staring all around the clearing as if waiting for something to leap on her. On one hand there was no guarantee she wouldn't burst into defensive flames any minute, as her body was searingly hot, but on the other hand Silver had no intention of letting go.

"You enjoying this or something?" Shadow grumbled, looking over while trying to detach Tails from himself.

"No. I've never seen her frightened of anything before, ever," said Silver softly, stroking Blaze's back. "This is the least I can do for her."

"Sap," muttered Shadow, finally prying Tails' arms loose. "Get over to Omega, kid. He's a nice solid bit of shelter."

Omega made a dismayed gritting sound, but Tails shook his head bravely.

"I-I'll be okay," he managed, wrapping his arms around himself. "Just a few minutes . . . "

Shadow nodded wearily and raked a hand through his quills.

For a while all was confusion. The kids were a little slow to wake up, since the poison went a longer way in their small bodies. Knuckles eventually awoke, all in a fury and ready to thoroughly kill whatever was giving him such a powerful bout of horrors, while Cream and Charmy were still in tears and Marine was still panicking. Silver and Shadow had their hands full, as Blaze was not yet in any condition to help out, so Omega hoisted Knuckles up by the ankles and held him still until he calmed down. Soon enough Amy started to twitch and cry out, and Espio stirred faintly as well.

"This is murder," groaned Shadow. "Drop the echidna, Omega, you need to take on some of these kids."

In the end they herded all the young ones over to a very uneasy Omega—although he needn't have worried. It turned out that they did in fact find the sturdy mass of metal comforting, and they had no problem with huddling against him quietly and waiting for the fear to wear off. He patted the more distressed ones on the heads carefully and gave them some of Silver's grilled-cheese sandwiches.

"Espio's going to be dangerous," called Shadow, watching the ninja's hands straying unconsciously to his shurikens already. "Leave him to me. Silver, you handle Amy; Blaze, are you in condition to help out?"

"I believe so," said Blaze quietly. Her normally severe ponytail was a little unkempt, but her eyes were already regaining their usual regal glint. Just that her hand twined a little more willingly than usual into Silver's.

"What about me?" asked a gruff voice from nearby. Shadow glanced up from guarding Espio to find Knuckles, knocking a hand against the side of his head as if he had water in his opposite ear, but otherwise looking quite coherent.

"You in condition?" asked Shadow tersely, turning back to Espio and prying a shuriken out of the chameleon's fingers.

"I'm fine."

"Keep an eye on Rouge then, she'll be waking soon."

Knuckles glanced up.

"You sure? What if she panics? . . . "

"Figure it out," retorted Shadow.

"Me? . . . "

There was a silence.

"You know how it stands." Shadow slapped Espio's hand away from his shuriken case and prodded the chameleon impatiently, urging him to wake up. His eyelids lowered slightly. "She probably doesn't need anyone looking after her anyway."

"True." Knuckles got to his feet. "Never does."

". . . Never."

Nearby, Amy stirred and gave a stifled wail, starting to wake up in earnest. Shadow glanced up long enough to give Knuckles a coolly analytical look, then turned back to his watch.

At last all of the Mobians were conscious and in various stages of equanimity. With so many of them scared or otherwise worked up, there was a fair bit of drama; Charmy looked like he wasn't about to unlatch his arms from Espio's waist anytime soon, and Cream was still hiccuping and rubbing her eyes as Amy hugged her soothingly, shivering herself. Rouge, still looking a little paranoid, gingerly flexed her fingers after finally loosening that death grip on the red Chaos Emerald. Omega said nothing, but patted her on the head long enough to show he meant it.

"Where's Sonic?" asked Tails, as Shadow and Silver had known he would. Silver gave Shadow a "you-handle-this" glance.

"Well, kid," said Shadow wearily. "He's not exactly himself right now."

They tried to explain it as gently as possible. Amy nearly lost it, and Tails looked pretty badly shaken as well, while the others had a hard time believing it.

"It's Sonic? You're sure? Not just a lookalike?" asked Knuckles stubbornly.

"It was the Faker one minute, and next thing I know he's stabbing me in the back," said Shadow. "Besides, it would explain why he was the one who brought Amy in, and why Espio got attacked while out alone with him."

"I saw him too," said Espio quietly. "He must have sneaked up on the others, but I got a glimpse of him and tried to catch him with a shuriken. It did look a bit like Sonic."

"There you go." Shadow waved a hand tiredly. "So then, next step is to change him back."

"Is there any sign of what might be the trigger?" asked Espio. "Does it seem to be a scientific cause, or a magical one?"

"Listen, it could be anything from poison injection to demonic possession, I don't know," growled Shadow. "That's what we needed the kid on his feet for."

"M-me?" stammered Tails. "I . . . I don't know if . . . " He gulped, then set his jaw. "All right. Take me to see him."


	12. Try to Fix You

While G.U.N. security trusted Shadow's judgment, they began to draw the line when he tried to bring in a whole crowd of unauthorized Mobians. Eventually it was decided that the less the others saw the better, anyway; Shadow took only Silver and Tails with him onto the grounds and into the animal containment building. Rouge and Omega came along too, since they were agents themselves.

It was visibly difficult for Tails. For a while he just stood in silence, staring at the creature that used to be his older brother, and which was now foaming at the mouth and desperately trying to stab him through the bars of its cage.

"You all right?" asked Silver gently.

"Fine," said Tails, his voice a little too far back in his throat. He cleared it hastily. "I'm fine. Let me see what I can do."

"How do you plan to go about it?" asked Rouge.

"Go straight to the source," said Tails grimly. "I think I know someone who can tell us _just_ what's wrong with Sonic."

"Eggman, you mean?" Silver leaned against an empty cage, his arms folded.

"Definitely Eggman."

"But how?" Shadow interrupted quietly. "He did know we were going camping, since I'd asked him about bringing Maria earlier. But he didn't even know the specific date, much less where we were going. How would he have known when and where to follow us, and done it without our noticing—not to mention, why wait for us to be isolated in the woods? He could cause a lot more trouble by turning Sonic into a fiend while in a highly populated place."

"So are you suggesting it's not Eggman?" Tails wrinkled his nose dubiously.

"I had assumed it was some unknown creature that lived in the woods where we were camping," shrugged Shadow. "It was my first impression, anyway."

"We could check in with Eggman, anyway," said Rouge lightly. "Shouldn't take too long."

Shadow nodded.

"Kid, you focus on trying to find a cure. I'll call Maria, and if she doesn't answer I'll Chaos Control over to Merkel Peak and sneak in somehow. If Eggman's been there all along, is it safe to assume this wasn't his doing?"

"Could have been one of his robots," pointed out Rouge.

"Mm." Tails twisted his mouth. "Most of them aren't smart enough to catch a squirrel, let alone carry out a stealth operation. Present company excepted," he added politely, nodding to Omega.

"Naturally," replied Omega loftily.

"But still, yeah, a robot is a possibility," continued Tails, sighing. "We should keep all our options open." He looked Sonic up and down again. "I'm going to need a blood test."

"Are you sure?" asked Silver, not sounding too keen on the prospect.

"Yeah . . . it seems likely that it's some kind of magic power, like when Dark Gaia transformed him into a werehog. Still, we can't rule out the possibility of poison or something," said Tails. "Would there be any way to hold him steady?"

Silver sighed resignedly.

"Okay. I'll grab him with my psychokinesis, you take the sample, okay?"

"I shall stand by in case he escapes your grasp," announced Omega. "He cannot harm me."

Shadow nodded, then flickered and disappeared. Reappearing seconds later, he shoved a blood-drawing kit into Tails' grasp. Tails nodded his thanks and turned expectantly to Silver, who sighed again, tucked his tongue into the corner of his mouth, and raised his hands. A snarling Sonic soon found himself floating a few inches off the ground, immobilized by a cyan aura. Shadow glanced at Rouge and tilted his head questioningly. Rouge gave a rueful nod.

"Hey, unless you need me around, I'll go make that call to Maria, 'kay?"

"Sure." Shadow turned back to the matter at hand as Rouge trotted out the door.

Meanwhile, Silver glanced over with wide eyes.

"It's harder," he whispered. "It's harder to hold him now."

"For you, maybe," said Shadow drily.

"No, I mean it. He's stronger, he's becoming _immune_ to psychokinesis!"

"Just hold him," sighed Shadow, unlocking the cage and swinging open the door. Tails stepped in after him and approached Sonic cautiously, his upper teeth clamped over his lower lip. Ever so carefully he inserted the needle into Sonic's arm, slowly drawing back the plunger to extract a sample of blood. His fur was standing up every which way with tension.

Suddenly Sonic jerked violently, a growl rattling in his throat.

"Hold him!" barked Shadow, yanking Tails out of the way just before a claw raked at his ear. The little fox stumbled back, eyes wide. Silver hissed with exertion as he struggled to get Sonic back under control, but Sonic kept lashing out and breaking partially free, his eyes glinting with hatred. Omega finally stepped forward and flattened the growling creature back against the bars of the cage with one hand.

"He will not move now," he announced. "Proceed, small forest creature."

"I-I still have the blood I drew earlier," stammered Tails. "It'll . . . it'll be enough."

Nodding tersely, Shadow chivvied Tails out the door of the cage and gestured for Omega to step out as well. Sonic attempted some maneuvers, but Shadow hooked a foot around his ankle and sent him crashing to the floor.

"Close the gate," he remarked, and Chaos Controlled to the outside of the cage. Having a few spare Chaos Emeralds was nice; it saved a lot of complication.

"Thanks," said Tails quietly, capping the blood sample and turning away to head to his workshop. He braced noticeably as he stepped out the door, preparing for the others' questions.

* * *

The day slipped by. Maria claimed that Eggman had not once moved from Merkel Peak for the last week, so the raid on Eggman's station was postponed, in hopes that Tails might find something conclusive on his own. He ran several different kinds of tests, although he never ventured inside the cage with Sonic again. Silver's psychokinesis seemed to have less and less effect on the creature.

The others tried to help. Rouge snuck onto Eggman's abandoned main base and pawed through his papers and computer files, looking for any hints that he'd been planning something. She did find a couple of other interesting plot notions, but nothing that looked like it could lead to Sonic's condition. Amy tried a few of her confounding or dizziness-inducing moves, but they had as little effect as Shadow's Chaos Spears. Knuckles went through all the ancient echidna lore that he could think of, but couldn't find anything useful.

At six AM the next morning, Tails sat hopelessly next to Sonic's cage, mixing chemicals aimlessly back and forth without really caring what he was doing. A case full of raw medications and fillers was propped open beside him. Sonic watched, narrow-eyed, through the bars of his cage.

Tails sighed and more or less tossed aside another brew he'd created, no more than another listless theory. He'd hardly slept at all last night, and his recent paralysis certainly didn't seem to count as sleep time. His brain was becoming milky with exhaustion. He'd checked Sonic's blood, heartbeat, and brainwaves, and while there was definitely something off with that last one, he couldn't pin down what. Heck, he still wasn't even sure if there _was_ a scientific cause for whatever had happened to Sonic—for all intents and purposes it sure looked like some kind of possession. There was no guarantee Tails would even be able to cure it.

Still, it had been an exhausting twenty-four hours, and despite his anxiety he couldn't fight back a yawn. His eyes dragged shut and open, his head bobbing slowly down to his chest. A flask full of beta-blockers slipped from his grasp and overturned, burbling its contents onto the floor as its owner drifted off into a doze.

Meanwhile, Sonic watched shiftily, his long nose twitching. The others hadn't fed him, not knowing what he'd like and getting the bad feeling that it would be raw meat. He hadn't eaten since the night before last, and he was perishingly hungry . . . so very hungry . . .

Presently Tails was awoken by a sharp snapping sound. Groaning, he rubbed his eyes and looked around groggily, feeling the back of his neck protest after the unusual sleeping posture. When he looked over to Sonic's cage, he saw his transformed brother pacing back and forth, like a caged wildcat in a zoo. His bloodshot eyes slid sidewise to rove over Tails, and his tongue suddenly lapped swiftly around the corners of his mouth. Shuddering, Tails got back to work.

Two minutes went by. Tails was still swirling a beaker mindlessly when he heard an odd metallic creaking. Looking up, he suddenly realized what the snapping sound must have been: the lock on Sonic's cage breaking. Now the gate was swinging blandly open, and Sonic was standing in the open gateway, his burning eyes fixed on Tails.

Time suddenly became sharply defined. Tails fell back onto his hands, hearing his heart pounding in his ears as he scrabbled backwards, overturning beakers and bottles. He backed into a cage and was forced to stop; his eyes never left Sonic's face, even as his hands groped blindly beside him, searching for something to defend himself with. All he could find was an empty flask. Clamping his fingers around the neck he waited, barely breathing.

Sonic didn't move, save for his ears. They swiveled slightly to the front and to the sides, as his gaze roved hungrily over the little fox, shrinking back in the center of the chemical carnage. Something like a snarl sandpapered up from the back of his throat, but still he didn't move.

Meanwhile Tails was on a rack of terror. His muscles screamed to flee, his throat burned with the urge to scream for help—but he knew either would trigger an instantaneous attack. So he waited, waited, trembled in anticipation of the roar and the lunge and the ripping claws, but still they never came. Each second seemed to build the horror, enhance the pain he knew was about to come. Strike! Strike already, get it over with! Please, just—

The suspense became too much. Something snapped, and Tails yelled at the top of his lungs, hurled the flask he'd been gripping at the creature's head, and threw himself mindlessly at the exit door, knowing he would be dead before he reached it—

And yet somehow he found himself outside, slamming the door shut and throwing himself against it, sobbing for breath. Inside he could hear nothing but the smashing and trampling of glass, mixed with howls of fury and the screech of claws dragging over concrete and the shredding of fabric—his medicine carrying case. Staggering to his feet—he could barely stand, he was so limp with relief—Tails stumbled into a run towards the main HQ building, shouting for help.

Shadow appeared the instant Tails got through the front door. The others somehow materialized from all over as well, bounding over from the outskirts of the grounds where they'd previously been biding their time. Trespassing on G.U.N. grounds could get you jail for life or worse, but right now the only thing anyone thought about was the uproar and cries for help they had heard.

"He's out!" gasped Tails, pointing back at the building, his eyes still wild. "He broke the lock!"

"Are you hurt?" asked Shadow swiftly, and barely waited for Tails to shake his head before breaking into a purposeful lope towards the shed. An earsplitting roar echoed from that direction, somehow tapering off into something flatter and thinner towards the end, as if it had been the crier's last breath.

Shadow, without once hesitating, strode to the door, booted it open, and plowed in. There was silence for a moment. The others, too wound up for caution, piled up to the door and looked through.

Shadow was standing motionless, one foot still planted forward defensively, head still down, arms still slightly spread—and before him, a slightly ragged, oddly small-seeming blue form was lifting its head from the floor.


	13. After the Blackout

Technically it was a risky business, since Sonic had already shown he could look quite normal even while possessed, but Tails had no reservations. He gave a stifled yelp and threw himself at Sonic, clamping his arms around him and burying his face in his shoulder. Sonic blinked down at his younger brother uncomprehendingly for a second, but almost subconsciously slipped a comforting arm around him.

Shadow relaxed out of his defensive stance, and the others crept in through the door, hesitant. Sonic stared around at them silently, his eyes wide and almost terrified.

"Yeah, yeah, we know," said Shadow, smiling drily. "'What happened?'"

Sonic shook his head like one in a trance, and seemed to process for a few seconds before he could figure out how to speak.

"I remember all of it," he said softly at last.

"You remember?" Shadow raised an eyebrow.

Sonic nodded, swallowing.

"All of it, but . . . I can't . . . " He lifted his free hand and surveyed his now-clawless fingers, looking horrified.

"He's not in any condition to talk," said Rouge briskly, taking charge and starting to herd the others out the door. "You'll get your answers later, you circus-goers, first we've got to give this idiot a cup of soup and a dose of shock medication."

* * *

Sonic was subsequently plied with Ramen noodles and some chamomile tea, but he blindly pushed away any of the soothing medications that Team Dark offered him. They figured they'd better not press the matter, since he seemed unstable enough as it was. As of now he seemed to be in survival mode, wolfing down soup without once raising his eyes to anyone or anything else.

Once he had dampened his hunger pangs somewhat, Sonic finally pushed the bowl away, licked his lips covertly, and glanced around the room with the look of a hunted animal. He met Shadow's glance for the briefest instant, but jerked his gaze elsewhere at once as if his eyes burned at contact.

"So," said Rouge, hooking her elbows over the back of the rec room sofa. "Wanna talk about it?"

"Not really," said Sonic softly. He grabbed the spoon from the Ramen noodles and began fiddling with it, chewing his lip.

Shrugging, Rouge got up and motioned the others into the room anyway. G.U.N. security was really having kittens; by now nobody seemed to give a darn about trespassing protocols anymore. Sonic looked more and more cornered as the others gathered around him, his ears folding outwards, his spines quivering slightly as his muscles tensed. He kept his eyes fixed on the spoon, turning it over and over in his hands.

Once everyone had assembled, perched on or leaning against the furniture, silence fell. It carried on for longer than was comfortable.

"So," Rouge prodded at last, her voice surprisingly lulling. Evidently interrogation was a part of G.U.N. training. "You say you remember?"

"Yeah," mumbled Sonic. He ducked his head lower, clearly wishing he could disappear.

"So you were conscious, all this time?" Rouge persisted. "What exactly is it that you remember?"

"I don't know, I don't know," slurred Sonic, shaking his head. "I just . . . It was like my brain shut down, and all I could think about was . . . " He shook his head again, hard. Slowly he reached out his hand and flexed his fingers, as if waiting for claws to sprout from his fingertips again. "I wasn't mindless. I could change when I wanted to, I could think, I could plan, I could come up with tricks and fool you all. But all I could think about was, I wanted to stab, wanted to drive in the poison. Later to . . . to _kill_. I've never felt anything like it before. Ever."

He took a deep breath, his spines rattling in panic. The others watched in mixed horror and sympathy; never in their lives had they seen Sonic even a third this wrecked up.

"It really happened?" blurted Sonic suddenly, looking up pleadingly. "It didn't. It was a dream, right? I dreamed it. I'm losing my mind, and I dreamed it. I'm just cracking up, that's all."

"No, it happened," said Shadow flatly.

Sonic pawed at his forehead, looking desperate.

"So I really . . . did scratch you up like that?"

"Like what? This?" Shadow flung his wrists out to the sides in a motion vaguely reminiscent of Michael Jackson, showing off a few whitish scars already fading into his fur. "Don't flatter yourself. I've gotten worse damage than this during regular training."

"I could've killed someone," whispered Sonic, swaying.

"What about towards the end?" asked Rouge, steering the topic away slightly. "You must have drunk one or more of Tails' medical brews. Do you remember which one?"

Sonic mumbled ambiguously, his mind clearly still elsewhere.

"Something in a flask. It smelled nice. I was so hungry, I just drank it . . . "

"You don't remember _anything?_ The taste? The specific smell?" asked Tails desperately. Sonic shook his head again.

"I don't believe it," sighed Tails, scruffing up his bangs with one hand. "The cure for the condition was right there in front of me, and now we still don't even know what it is."

"The important thing is, he's cured," said Silver soothingly. "It might not happen again."

"But it might," said Rouge. She glanced back to Sonic. "Don't suppose you'd remember what it was that brought on the attack, do you?"

Sonic shook his head once more, the motion seemingly mechanical by now.

"I went to sleep normal. I woke up around four-thirty, and all I could think of was—was—" He gulped abruptly and stood up. "I'm going out, okay?"

"No, wait!" protested Tails. "We still don't know if—"

"I have to run!" insisted Sonic, backing up. "I can't think straight, I've got to—"

"No, you can't!" Tails grabbed Sonic's arm pleadingly. "You might still be sick, the medicine might have poisoned you too, you might get a regression! You can't be out there all alone where we can't help you!"

Sonic yanked away and stumbled back, looking ready to bolt; his ears were laid back flat again, but now not in anger but in horror. He was suffocating on his own guilt, and the others' worried faces only seemed to terrify him more. Shadow swooped forward and wrenched Sonic's hands behind his back, immobilizing him.

"Let me go!" snapped Sonic, panicked. He struggled only for a second, then suddenly his eyes rolled back in his head, his chin dropped to his chest, and he sagged limply against Shadow's grip. There were several anxious cries.

"What have you done to him?!" howled Amy, her hammer springing into being. Within seconds Rouge was upon her, wrenching the hammer from her hand—it immediately disintegrated—and forcing Amy's hands behind her back as well.

"Get ahold of yourself, woman!" she hissed into Amy's ear. "You're already in danger for trespassing, what do you think happens when you're caught in G.U.N. headquarters with an unauthorized weapon?"

Amy said nothing, her eyes wide.

"If I let you go, does the hammer stay hidden?" growled Rouge. Amy nodded wordlessly, and Rouge gave a snort and pushed her free, none too gently.

"But . . . what have you done?" Amy ventured again, adamant.

"Nothing," said Shadow calmly, tossing Sonic's unconscious form back onto the sofa. "That tea wasn't just chamomile."

"You drugged his drink?!" barked Tails this time, his fur bristling furiously. Shadow raised his eyebrows down at the much shorter fox, looking ever so slightly beleaguered.

"Do you want to run a health scan on him, or not?"

Tails continued to glare.

"It was a normal over-the-counter sleep medication," relented Shadow, eyeing the ceiling as if he suspected his ebbing patience was lurking there. "It takes action within half an hour or so—we figured the way he was acting, a little sleepiness would make him easier to interrogate anyway and keep him from bolting."

Tails sighed and turned away.

"All right. Fine. Thanks . . . I guess. I'll run some tests on him while he's sleeping."

"Should wake up in about six to eight hours," remarked Rouge, reading the back of a small plastic medicine bottle, then tossing it to Tails. "Pop him another one of these if he gets rowdy. Now the lot of you, get out of here."

Looking various degrees of shell-shocked, the other Mobians began to drift silently towards the door. They took Sonic and the heavily tense atmosphere with them.

"Well," said Rouge at length, heaving a sigh and leaning against an armchair. Shadow groaned and threw himself back onto the sofa, closing his eyes.

"Had a long twenty-four hours, huh?" said Rouge. "I was kinda snoozing through a lot of them, but I guess it was rougher on you."

"I could do with never seeing another Mobian again," muttered Shadow. Rouge chuckled and plopped a throw pillow onto his face.

"There, does that help?"

"It does, actually."


	14. The Itch

**A/N: Hi all! Man, this story is turning out way longer than I expected it to be . . . I realize it must seem like a total rambling wreck right now, but I promise you, literally _everything_ that has happened so far is important and interconnected. If you've been hanging in there for this long, thanks; I appreciate your patience. ^_^'' And thanks to all who have been reviewing, faving, following, etc! **

**Disclaimer: I don't own Sonic and Co.! And I suppose I should have said this earlier—I don't own any of the songs or things I'm referencing in the chapter titles, either.**

* * *

Early that same afternoon, Sonic awoke, blinking groggily at the ceiling. For a while he lay peacefully, trying to sort out his context. Then it hit him all at once and he attempted to spring from his bed and flee.

The attempt did not go very well; he merely succeeded in leaping fishlike from the bed and thudding to the floor. Squirming wildly, he realized his ankles were bound together with a sturdy metal loop.

Tails, evidently attracted by the noise, appeared in the doorway.

"Sonic! Are you all right?"

"Get this thing offa me!" protested Sonic, kicking both feet in tandem furiously.

"Sorry Sonic," sighed Tails. "I had to hobble you so you wouldn't run."

"But I've got to run! Please!" Sonic gave up trying to pry open the shackle with his hands and looked at Tails pleadingly. "You've got to let me go, Tails!"

Tails bit his lip, looking away; his heart bled seeing Sonic so uncharacteristically desperate, but he couldn't risk it just yet.

"Just a little longer, Sonic. I need to run a few more tests, and set you up with a safety device, and then you can go. You can wait just a little longer . . . right?"

Sonic groaned despairingly. As Tails bustled about fetching scanners and instruments, he continued to sit and fiddle with his fingers aimlessly, his eyes straying hauntedly to the window. His brain was linked irreversibly to his feet—running was his only way of dealing with things. And right now he had a lot to deal with.

"Just a little longer," murmured Tails soothingly, carefully fastening electrodes to Sonic's head.

Finally the tests were finished. Silver and Amy came over to see how Sonic was doing, Rouge dropped by asking for the sleep medication back (they had filched it from a fellow-agent), and the increasing number of Mobians was clearly making Sonic wild with anxiety. He eyed the others uneasily, seemingly waiting for condemnation, anger, disbelief. Wisely, they didn't attempt to talk to him.

"All right Sonic," said Tails at last, loosening the band slightly so Sonic could limp outside after him. "I'm going to attach this security bracelet to your arm. It should feel a little tight, but not too tight. Now, your arms were a bit thicker in your—other form . . . " he paused tactfully. "And this bracelet is quite fragile. If you transform again, it'll break and send me a signal, so we know to come looking for you. If you happen to break it by accident, let us know, okay? So there isn't a false alarm. You got all that?"

Sonic nodded feverishly—although he probably would have done the same if Tails had expounded to him in Gaelic. He was still straining silently in every fiber, his eyes fixed on the horizon.

"Be careful, Sonic. Don't push yourself too hard," continued Tails. His words fell again on deaf ears. Sighing quietly, he flicked a remote switch that sent the lock on Sonic's ankles snapping off.

Sonic bolted. A scream of gravel under shoes, he stumbled hard, caught himself, and was gone. Tails drew a deep breath and started gathering up the discarded restraint and equipment.

"Need some help?" offered Amy.

"Need some information," replied Tails tiredly. He looked up at Silver. "You and Shadow saw a lot of Sonic while you were fighting with him, right? Do you think you could tell me all about it? Maybe I can figure something out if I hear all the details."

"Sure, I can tell you what I know—but Shadow did see way more of him than me," shrugged Silver. "You'll definitely want to talk to him too."

Tails nodded thoughtfully.

"It would be good to have both of you guys telling the story together, so you can back each other up and fill in the blanks . . ." Hopefully he turned to Rouge. "Would Shadow have time to come over and tell the story, please?"

"He's not going to be happy," said Rouge dubiously, but relented at Tails' pleading look. "Fine, kiddo. I'll go ask him. Don't blame me if he's grumpier than a sunburned boa constrictor when he gets here."

Shadow did show up, indeed not in the best possible mood, but not in the worst possible either.

"Let's get this over with," he muttered, as Tails set up a tape recorder and a notepad. Silver nodded in his direction.

"You'd better start the story, I didn't come into it until later."

"And even then you were only in the way," said Shadow sardonically.

"What?! _Hey_—"

"Could've gotten the whole thing done much faster if I didn't have to look after you all the time," continued Shadow coolly.

Silver folded his arms and gave Shadow a look. He seemed to be considering saying something, but Shadow merely tilted his head in challenge and Silver backed down immediately, looking away.

"Okay then, Shadow, could you please start?" Tails broke in wearily. He had seen the alpha-wolf display multiple times before, and by now met it with quiet resignation. It was in Shadow's nature to dominate, and dominate still harder at those who gave way.

Shadow shrugged and began to slice methodically through the story, cutting in a straight line. He had not gotten very far before Tails raised a hand cautiously.

"Sorry," he said, when Shadow stopped his narrative and gave him a disgruntled look. "But you said that you got stabbed with the claws?"

"Multiple times, yes."

"And you're sure there was poison in them?"

"The fear chemical, yes. I'm immune to it; the lab boys tell me I'm immune to fear entirely."

"Immune to fear," murmured Tails, his eyes growing distant with thought. "That's really amazing. I wonder what . . ." He looked up suddenly. "Do you have an amygdala?"

Shadow raised an eyebrow at him silently.

"Sorry, sorry, I guess it's hard to tell," Tails backtracked. "It's just . . . it would be really helpful to know how your brain avoids the fear reaction. Think of what it could do for medicine! It could lead to advances in treating shock or PTSD or other anxiety-related conditions!"

"If that means you want to take my head apart, I'm still using it at the moment," retorted Shadow.

"No, no, I just wanted to run tests—see if I can trigger a fear reaction by different methods, but, uh . . . " Tails trailed off nervously, realizing that Shadow might not take kindly to the idea of being forced to feel fear.

Shadow, however, looked mildly intrigued—and mildly was a lot, for him.

"You're saying you could bypass the immunity somehow?"

"Maybe . . . ?" ventured Tails. "But you'd be, you know . . . scared. You wouldn't mind?"

Shadow shook his head.

"If I've been missing out on it all these years, I'd like to know what it feels like."

So it was decided. Shadow finished the story quickly, with a little hesitant input from Silver. Then Tails led Shadow into the workshop and started testing.

Rouge ventured into the room a while later, burning with curiosity, and found Shadow sitting on the floor, nonchalantly poking an electrode into the roof of his mouth. Apparently the gag reflex was something else he was missing.

"He's immune to carbon dioxide suffusion," announced Tails, looking up from the control panel of some bizarre-looking refrigerator-sized machine. "Not surprising, I guess; even most regular people don't get panic attacks from that."

"So . . . what are you doing now?" asked Rouge uneasily.

"I'm going to bypass the amygdala—I've run brain scans, he _does_ have an amygdala—" chirped Tails, "—and I'll put a little electrical stimulation into some other parts of his brain, to trigger hallucinations and a fear response."

"Sounds lovely," said Rouge drily. She looked at Shadow. "You seriously want to do this?"

Shadow shrugged.

"If he fries my brain, it'll grow back."

Rouge rolled her eyes silently. Shadow caught her eye as Tails continued to bustle about, then nodded out the window, jabbed a thumb in Tails' direction, and twirled a finger briefly at his head: _Besides, it'll distract the kid so he doesn't go crazy worrying about Sonic._ Rouge smiled slightly, surprised. From Shadow, she would not have expected that.

"All right," said Tails at last, clipping a final external electrode to Shadow's head. "Are you sure you want to do this?"

Shadow decided against nodding, fearing that one of the many electrodes would come off if he did; as such he settled for an affirmative "mmh."

"Get ready," said Tails, and flipped the power switch on the machine. Shadow sat back and closed his eyes.

For a few seconds he thought nothing was happening. A few points on his head seemed to grow oddly warm, as if touched by the tip of a heated poker. Before he could think too extensively about that, the blackness of the backs of his eyelids suddenly melted into a thicker, heavier darkness, and he felt himself sink into unconsciousness.

It was a rather pleasant unconsciousness. He felt as if he were wandering peacefully through a cozy old house, too comfortable with the hallways to bother turning on the lights.

Abruptly the warm blackness shattered, and he was blinded by a flash of pure white. When it subsided, he was no longer in a void of pure blackness, but sprawled on the ground in a dark and brooding landscape. Above him, the sky churned with eerie black clouds.

He sat up, blinking around. Part of him somehow knew he wasn't really here, since he most definitely _had_ fallen asleep in Tails' workshop. But the rest of him was quite happy to assume that he really was experiencing this and react accordingly.

Before him, the darkness seemed to thicken, until it condensed into a cloudlike form. Shadow squinted, trying to see the solid being at its center, but it wasn't any shape that he recognized.

Suddenly a pair of pure-black eyes flashed from the softer black murk, and pain ripped through Shadow's body, driving him back to the ground. He looked up and found the hard black eyes shining darkly above him, their owner nothing but an indistinct looming form, still shrouded in black mist. Shadow gazed up, struck by a sudden awareness of his own impending death.

Not that he'd take it lying down. He swung to his feet, teeth set, and lunged for the dark figure. It merely shifted slightly, and as Shadow was about to collide with it, somehow sent him tumbling to the ground again. Again Shadow got to his feet, tried a Chaos Spear this time—again he was thrown back, rocks scraping against his shoulders. Again—again—again—never the slightest success—it was worse than even Sonic's transformed state, there was something purely _evil_ about it. Every blow seemed to send a cold, sucking draft through Shadow's body, leaching out his will to live.

At last the dark figure hurled Shadow down and attacked, the glassy black eyes plunging towards him breathtakingly fast—Shadow felt the briefest spasm of something he had never felt before—and he was bolting awake in Tails' workshop again, electrodes fizzing in protest as they flew loose.

"Are you all right?" cried Tails, shutting off the machine so it wouldn't short-circuit. Shadow looked around, squinting at his surroundings suspiciously.

"So? Were you scared?" asked Rouge.

"What did you see?" added Tails eagerly.

"There was this weird _thing_," said Shadow, rubbing his head and detaching a few more electrodes in the process. "And somehow I just knew I couldn't defeat it, and no matter how much I fought it, I couldn't. And then it was about to kill me, and I woke up."

"So you were scared then?" asked Rouge again.

"I don't know. I don't have anything to compare it against," shrugged Shadow. Picking up some loose electrodes, he began to clip them to his head. "Run that through me again, kid."

"Are you crazy?" demanded Rouge, staring.

"That thing—that was the best opponent I have ever seen," said Shadow, continuing to hook electrodes to himself randomly. "I've got to figure out how to defeat it."

"There _is_ no way to defeat it!" protested Tails. "That's the whole point of fear—knowing you're outmatched and helpless, that there's nothing you can do to save yourself."

"There's got to be a way," said Shadow stubbornly. "Run it again, kid."

Tails looked at Rouge despairingly, but rearranged the electrodes to their proper places and started up the machine again. Rouge watched, disgruntled but resigned. It was in Shadow's nature to dominate, and dominate the hardest at those who didn't give way at all.

* * *

**A/N: Yep, the amygdala is real. It's the part of the brain that initiates fear, anger, and other "primal" emotions. There've been real cases where people lost their amygdala to a stroke, for example, and completely lost the ability to feel fear. Brain science! Crazy stuff. **


End file.
